Wings of Icarus
by Arc Trader
Summary: <html><head></head>Project Overlord. As a Cerberus experiment to control the geth spirals wildly out of control, John Shepard, Tali'Zorah, and Legion find they are the only beings who can stop an insane VI from destroying all life in the Milky Way. Final author's notes up.</html>
1. Messenger of Hermes

_Project Overlord was a great DLC, but it unfortunately had a ton of plot holes and missed opportunities, the most glaring being a complete lack of dialogue for Legion and Tali, whom I felt would be most personally affected by the project in question. What I'm attempting to accomplish with this story is a comprehensive overview of the mission while trying to patch the various holes in the plot that the game did not bother to address._

_I am indebted to the Mass Effect wiki for providing background information, as well as to Youtube users cshep25 and Darksydephil (DSPGaming) for allowing me to view Overlord's cutscenes and gameplay together in a very entertaining manner._

_On a side note, I am far from a computer security expert, so please forgive any artistic license I may take with the nature of the VI infection. The VI itself was practically magical anyway in the game, so I do hope that whatever I come up with will not break willing suspension of disbelief... too badly._

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 1: Messenger of Hermes<br>**

_Normandy SR-2, __14__ days after Omega-4 mission_

"Shepard. I was afraid you weren't going to pick up. I'm glad you did."

"I didn't think you'd be calling back so soon."

The Illusive Man took a moment to take a long drag from his cigarette before pushing it into the ashtray. "I'm not here to talk about your decision regarding the Collector base. What's done is done. Don't get me wrong, I'm not happy about your choice, but I didn't get to where I am by constantly trying to change the past. No, we need to talk about the future."

"Just get to the point."

"About 3 days ago, a Cerberus facility on the planet Aite went completely off the grid. One moment they were fine, the next it's like they completely vanished from the universe. I need you to go there and find out what happened."

Shepard frowned. "I seem to recall from our last conversation that I don't take orders from you anymore. What makes you think I'm going to bother now?"

"Because you're not stupid. You know I wouldn't be calling you if this wasn't something of critical importance. You want to play the wandering hero and fight the good fight, be my guest. As long as you're contributing something to the fight against the Reapers, I'm not going to stand against you." He paused, letting his cybernetic eyes meet Shepard's for a long moment. "This facility was working on a project codenamed Overlord. If something has gone wrong –"

"Another one of your insane science projects?" interrupted Shepard. "When are you going to learn to stop playing with things you can't handle? Forget it, I'm not touching this one."

"– then there may not be a galaxy left for the Reapers to harvest," finished the Illusive Man, his tone not wavering in the slightest. "That, Shepard, is the difference between this project and the others. The previous experiments that regrettably spun out of our control could at least be contained to a planet, or at most a single solar system. Project Overlord has the potential to escape off-world and destroy all galactic civilization as we know it."

"So what were you working on that could possibly do that?"

"I can't say, not even on a channel as secure as this."

"You damn well better throw me a bone here or you can forget about getting my help."

The Illusive Man merely stared at him for a long while before pulling out another cigarette. As Shepard waited, the head of Cerberus calmly lit up and took another drag before meeting his eyes again.

"Geth."

Shepard's eyes narrowed at the admission. "Geth? What were you trying to do? You realize with Legion on board, this may have destroyed any chances we have to negotiate with them?"

"That's exactly why you need to fix this situation up, and fast. This project began long before we had any idea what your pet geth told us about them. And that's all I dare say about Overlord. Get to planet Aite, find out what happened, and salvage what you can. I'm sending coordinates to EDI now." With those words, the real-time communication cut off. Light flooded Shepard's vision and he was back in the Normandy's briefing room.

Tali'Zorah vas Normandy stepped away from her position where she'd been leaning against the wall and caught his gaze. "I don't like this, Shepard. This doesn't sound good at all."

He sighed. "You don't need to tell me that. Everything about this is rotten from the start. But at the same time, it says a lot about the seriousness of this situation that the Illusive Man would actually bother to contact me in person, especially after I basically turned in my resignation letter at the Collector base. I guess you wouldn't know since this is the first time you've seen and heard him, but he was agitated. Considering all the times I've talked to him, if something could make him nervous, this must be big."

"You have a point there," she muttered as they turned to exit the briefing room. "Still, geth? I thought Cerberus couldn't get any lower after everything they've done, and they still manage to surprise me."

"Tell me about it," he said. "So," he turned to her. "Can I count on you to back me up down there?"

"Of course you can," she said.

They turned to their left and entered the armory, where Jacob was finishing up repairs on some of their equipment. "Jacob," said Shepard by way of greeting as he clapped a hand to the other man's arm. "How's everything going?"

"Well enough, Commander," said Jacob as he started to reassemble the submachine gun he was working on. "Still working on fixing up some of the kinks our equipment took on the Collector base, but I should be done with that soon."

"Are my weapons ready? Sounds like we've got geth to deal with."

"Geth?" asked the armory officer. Shepard took a moment to give him the short version of the conversation. When he was finished, Jacob simply shook his head in disbelief.

"What is that man up to now?" he muttered. "Well, to answer your question, I fixed the jamming problem in your submachine gun, boss. Not to mention I finally had a chance to apply some of those schematics we found in the Collector base; your handgun should pack a hell of a punch now.

"Thanks, Jacob," he said.

"Anytime. Drop by and pick them up once we get to Aite."

* * *

><p>Aite was a beautiful world, a veritable garden planet in the Phoenix Massing. From the files that Shepard had acquired, though, it was a trap: the planet was due for a stellar collision in less than 200 years. In the meantime, until that happened, lawless bands of settlers, primarily human and batarian, were determined to eke out a living on Aite until the end came for the world.<p>

"Geez, Commander, how many times now has a Cerberus science project blown up in their face?" asked Joker as the planet came into view.

"My thoughts exactly Joker. You know there's something the Illusive Man isn't telling me that's gonna bite me in the ass when we land. Anyway, have you found the facility yet?"

"A scan of the relevant sector has located the building. It appears to be spread out over an area of several tens of miles. Recommend a ground transport to fully investigate the entire area," said EDI.

"Thanks EDI, but I was about to use the scanner myself," complained Joker.

"It is only fair that I get my share as well," deadpanned the AI.

"You two are worse than an old married couple," muttered Shepard as he turned back to the CIC. "Looks like we'll need some ground transport to cover the whole area." He touched the communicator on his earpiece. "Garrus, is the Hammerhead ready for action?"

"It's ready to roll out boss," replied the turian. "Engine is purring like new but I didn't exactly have time to finish the calibrations on the cannon."

"You would never finish those calibrations even if you had a hundred years to do it. We'll make do for now." He hit the elevator call button as Tali fell into step beside him and waited.

"Shepard-Commander."

They both turned in the direction of the monotone voice that had appeared at their side. "Yes, Legion? Is everything set on your end?" asked Shepard. He had already briefed the synthetic on the mission and it had agreed to accompany him and Tali as part of the primary fireteam.

"Yes. We will acquire our weapons from Crewman-Taylor."

"While you're at it, could you retrieve our weapons as well? We'll be waiting for you at the Hammerhead."

"Acknowledged." And with that, the synthetic walked away as the two organics stepped into the elevator.

The elevator began to move as Shepard turned to Tali. "I know you don't like it, but –"

"I'll be fine," she cut him off abruptly. "It has a point, and we could use its abilities if we do end up fighting other geth. I just don't want to be alone with it. Not even after everything we've been through."

"You won't. You handled yourself just fine when we went with it to eliminate the heretics and I know you'll do fine here. I know it's difficult to have to work with a being you've been raised and trained to hate, but all things considered, I think you're adjusting quite well."

She smiled at those words. Somehow Shepard always found a way to make her feel better about herself even in her worst moments. "Thank you… Captain."

"You're welcome." He frowned as he looked at the floor indicator. "This elevator takes way too long."

* * *

><p>"All right, Commander, we're approaching optimal drop distance," said Joker into Shepard's earpiece. "One minute."<p>

The _Normandy_'s lower hangar doors opened revealing the hovertank and the two Kodiak shuttles with the rest of Shepard's ground crew preparing to launch. Just as the Hammerhead accelerated and was in freefall, the frigate suddenly shuddered.

"What was that, Joker?"

"Not sure!" called the pilot. "I've got weird readings across our consoles. EDI, what's going on?"

"A foreign presence is attempting to overwrite my control of the ship," said the AI's cool voice. "That jolt was me rerouting power from the engine to fry some of the consoles it had compromised. Fortunately they were nonessential. I have put up firewalls to prevent further intrusion but I recommend we immediately get to orbit out of radio transmission range and shut down communications."

"Commander, what do we do?" asked Joker.

Shepard considered the facts for a split second. Cerberus experiments on geth. A foreign intelligence attempting to commandeer the _Normandy_. An entire research station gone dark. He glanced at Tali and caught her eye. She nodded. He knew she was thinking the same thing.

"Joker, do what EDI said. Team, do not launch the shuttles. Stay on standby until further notice. Once you get back to orbit, do not attempt to initiate communications with us unless I preface the phrase with _olly-olly oxen free_. If you don't hear back from us in 24 hours, get out of here and alert the Alliance about this planet."

Joker was silent for a moment before replying, "Acknowledged, Commander. Good luck down there."

The Hammerhead rocked as Shepard hit the retro-rockets to slow the vehicle down as it approached the optimal distance to land. A few seconds later, the hovertank touched down and landed in the middle of an empty landing pad as the frigate took off and made for orbit. The main hub of the Cerberus facility was right in front of them. The trio stepped out of the vehicle and looked around, but there was nobody to be found.

"_Olly-olly oxen free_?" questioned Tali. "Sounds cute."

"It gets the job done just fine," muttered Shepard. "Anyway, eyes up front and stay sharp, both of you," he ordered as he drew his submachine gun and affixed his helmet on top of his N7 armor. "I have no idea what happened here but since we've got a possible geth attack, be ready for anti-synthetic combat."

Tali unslung her shotgun and pumped a round in, then sighted down the barrel. "Got it," she acknowledged.

"Acknowledged," said Legion as it too unfolded its sniper rifle.

They moved at a steady trot through the front door of the facility. Immediately they were greeted with the signs of carnage and death. Two human bodies lay at the end of the lobby in pools of blood while destroyed computers and screens were everywhere.

"Keelah," whispered Tali in horror.

"Analysis: energy burns on walls consistent with geth pulse rifles," said Legion as it continued scanning the room with its optical unit.

"And these people were killed by what looks like an explosive at close proximity," muttered Shepard as he inspected the two dead bodies. "Let's move past this lobby, and watch out for enemy geth."

"_Over here_!" called an unknown voice.

"What was that?" snapped Shepard as he dropped into a crouch and swept the room, Tali following suit.

"_Over here, on the monitor_," repeated the faint British voice. Shepard looked and saw a monitor on a table with an image of a scientist waving at the screen. The man was middle-aged, with a thin beard and goatee, a dark receding hairline, and wearing a standard Cerberus scientist uniform. Shepard cautiously edged closer.

"_Thank God you came. I'm Gavin Archer, project director of this facility. I've locked myself in a computer room on the other side of the building. There are geth all over the area. A rogue VI has taken control of the facility's systems and is attempting to upload itself off-planet. You need to shut down the satellite communications dish to ensure that it doesn't. An omni-tool should suffice for the task_."

Shepard took a look at Tali, who simply shrugged. Turning back to the monitor, he said, "Hold on, slow down. What do you mean a 'rogue VI?' What does that have to do with geth? For that matter, how the hell did you get your hands on geth to experiment with?"

Archer raised his hands in apology. "_I'm sorry, but I cannot keep this channel open much longer. The VI may detect it and shut it down. Explanations will have to wait. For now, hurry and shut down the communications dish. The control room is just a few doors away. You should be clear of geth in that area_."

The image cut off. Shepard turned to his team and frowned. "All right, you two. Thoughts?"

"This is only going to be a wild guess, Shepard, but I'm thinking that this VI he mentioned is in charge of the geth here," offered Tali. "But that doesn't answer the question of where the geth came from, or what this VI is trying to do."

"We tentatively concur with Creator-Tali'Zorah's assessment. Additional data will be required to derive new conclusions."

Shepard nodded curtly and then gestured for the team to move on. Moving through the facility yielded little else than dead bodies and destroyed computers. They paused for a moment upon entering what used to be a waiting room with a pair of men who had been gunned down. At the same time, what would have been a relaxing classical piano piece continued to drone on over the PA system.

"I've never heard this kind of music before," said Tali, "but it feels very out of place here."

"It's from a piano, human instrument. And yeah, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one unnerved by this."

A few rooms later, they found the dish control panel. As instructed by Archer, Shepard moved to sync his omni-tool with the controls to retract the dish. The massive instrument began to lower itself.

A horrific screeching noise suddenly erupted out of every speaker in the PA system. It was as if a turian had tried to drag its claws along a starship's hull and then did some sound editing on it as a kind of extranet prank. For Shepard, the effect was far worse. It was as his brain was on fire and his muscles spasming. His omni-tool's glow began to flicker between orange and green.

"Shepard!" cried out Tali as she moved to support him before he collapsed.

"Alert: hacking attempts detected. Rerouting processes to counter-hacking measures. Creator-Tali'Zorah, recommend immediate shutdown of Shepard-Commander's omni-tool."

She didn't have to be told twice. Tali quickly shut it off. Shepard went limp and collapsed, his breath coming in heavily.

"Legion, what happened?" demanded Tali.

The synthetic was silent for a good 10 seconds as its head flaps continued to flutter open and closed. Finally it turned its Cyclops gaze to her. "Upon interfacing of Shepard-Commander's omni-tool with the satellite controls, this platform detected an unknown cybernetic intelligence attempting to install malicious code within us and also within Shepard-Commander's omni-tool. We believe this was the rogue VI that Scientist-Archer warned about. We are currently running a system diagnostic to ensure malicious code was not successfully installed."

"I'm all right," groaned Shepard as he got back to his feet. "Just give me a moment to shake off this damn headache. Legion, what the hell happened to me?"

"Virtual intelligence attempted to interface with Shepard-Commander. It may have been attempting to take control of Shepard-Commander by overriding cybernetic implants with its own initiatives."

For a long moment, Shepard was stunned at the revelation. Then he turned slowly to Tali. "Tali, refresh my memory: you have implants as well, right?"

"Yes. I know what you're going to say, Shepard, don't worry: I'm not going to turn on my omni-tool."

"Precaution unnecessary," said Legion as it continued its analysis. "Creator-Tali'Zorah's implants are not mutually linked together as extensively as Shepard-Commander's. Any override attempt similar to the one initiated upon Shepard-Commander will be unable to physically affect her in any significant manner. In addition, they are not computerized in nature. Creator-Tali'Zorah may use her omni-tool safely."

"Good," breathed Shepard as he turned to look out the window. "What the hell has Cerberus gotten itself into now?"

"_Hello? Hello? Are you there_?" The voice of Gavin Archer spoke up again from the ceiling speakers. "_Damn it. The VI has interrupted the shutdown of the dish. You'll need to destroy the dish manually. There is a tram nearby that will lead you to it. Hurry, there's not much time. I have to shut down this channel now, but be careful: the VI knows you're here_."

"Hold on!" yelled Shepard, to no avail as the channel shut down. "When I meet this guy, remind me to beat the crap out of him after we've gotten our answers."

"You and me both, Captain," muttered Tali as she shouldered her shotgun. "Let's go."

They moved on to the next room, what was clearly a dining area for the staff of the facility. Unlike before, the place was pristine, with no dead bodies or signs of carnage. Shepard and Tali moved to a raised platform that overlooked the area and took a moment to survey the large room.

"Shepard-Commander! Movement detected! Take cover!"

At Legion's agitated command, Shepard grabbed Tali's arm and pulled her down with him behind the bullet-proof glass of the platform's safety rail. Less than a second later, a rocket went flying over their heads and impacted the wall behind, spraying bits of plaster and concrete around. Shepard looked up and saw their attacker, a geth rocket platform on the second story accompanied by another unit of the same design. From the kitchen, multiple geth troopers were pouring out, pulse rifles blazing. Legion moved to crouch next to the two.

"Dammit! Tali, use your combat drone and try and distract them for a bit. Legion, I'm going to move up and get to that pillar in the center of the room. Give me sniper support."

"Got it!" said Tali as she summoned her drone. "Go get them Chiktikka."

The glowing blue orb materialized and moved to zap the closest geth. At the same instant, Shepard vaulted over the railing and laid in a burst of fire at a geth destroyer that had come out of the kitchen. The two geth rocket troopers on the second floor were eliminated by a volley from Legion's anti-materiel rifle.

"Tali, move on, I've got them suppressed!"

She moved to follow his lead, vaulting over the rail and dashing up to the window that separated the dining area and the kitchen. A geth trooper was still in the kitchen until she stood up and put a shotgun blast through its optic.

"All right, Legion, move up with me into the kitchen." Shepard disengaged from the pillar and leapt into the kitchen, quickly moving to take up position by the side door that led to an antechamber near the tram. Another group of geth was coming up from the tram station. A shielded geth destroyer led the way, but a tech overload from Shepard collapsed it and cleared the way for Tali to put a volley of shotgun blasts into its midsection before it could engage its flamethrowers, leaving it a pile of scrap. Legion's AMR barked another three times, and the remaining geth fell.

"I think that's all of them. Everyone OK?"

"I'm fine, Shepard. Nothing got past my shields."

"No damage detected."

"Something's up here," frowned Shepard. "These geth were a lot easier to deal with than any others I've fought before. I've seen new marine recruits shoot better than they did."

"Maybe it has to do with the nature of the VI controlling them," offered Tali. "I noticed that all the geth units had a green code to them. It's probably not meant for combat."

"Maybe. Legion, any thoughts?"

"We have not needed to send out any form of junk data to impair enemy combat effectiveness. These geth runtimes are scattered and fragmented. They are not linked together in any form of coherent manner."

"That might explain their crappy shooting, but where did they come from, Legion? And what about you? I noticed you too were taking a lot more shots than necessary to put down the enemy."

At that observation, Tali's head snapped over to look at Shepard. "Legion, are you absolutely certain you are not vulnerable to being hacked? Because if you end up turning on us like these other geth…"

"Tali…" warned Shepard.

The synthetic turned to stare at the quarian. "Acknowledged, Creator-Tali'Zorah. This platform wishes for the continued safety of both you and Shepard-Commander. It is exceedingly unlikely this platform will be able to be successfully hacked in the manner as those geth that have already attacked. However, a successful hack attempt still has a positive non-zero probability of success. To ensure additional precautions against a hacking attempt, in addition to shutting down wireless communications, we can partition our runtimes so that any successful hack attempt will only gain control of selected mobility functions instead of the entire platform. Addendum: partitioning runtimes will reduce processing power and may impact combat capability. Requesting recommendation from Shepard-Commander."

Instead of answering, Shepard turned to regard his engineer. "Well, Tali, I'd like to hear your opinion on this too."

She took a moment to answer. "This whole situation is already terrible, Shepard. I don't think we need to worry about an… ally turning its guns on us. If the enemies we're facing don't get much worse than what we've already fought, then I think we can handle it even if Legion has to shoot like a child getting his first gun."

"All right, Legion. Go ahead and partition yourself off. We can't afford to take any chances."

"Acknowledged."

The three of them then moved out to the tram to the communications dish. The ride was largely uneventful, if a bit slow. During the ride Legion announced it had finished its partitions and they stepped out to their destination. The dish was suspended above a tall canyon, service catwalks being the only way into the superstructure.

"Ugh…" moaned Tali as they traversed the catwalks near the dish.

Shepard glanced back at her. "You all right, Tali?"

"I don't know, it's just… well, on the Flotilla, there's no such thing as being high up. I guess I'd better not look down," she admitted.

"Vertigo," said Shepard. "Sounds like a good idea, just keep your eyes on me."

She muttered something back in Khelish that his translator didn't quite catch, the hint of a smile in her tone. He fought down the smirk that threatened to appear.

They came to a gap in the catwalk, which Shepard quickly remedied by toggling a switch to extend a bridge. As they were walking, movement at the corner of her eye caught Tali's attention.

"Catwalk across from us, enemy targets!"

A volley of fire came from the three geth platforms. Shepard and Tali quickly ducked behind the railing and moved to pull out their heavy pistols. At the same time, Legion's AMR thundered as it returned fire.

Tali stood up and emptied her clip at a geth trooper that was spraying in their direction. A few shots impacted on her shields, but the trooper she was aiming at took a hit in the optical unit and collapsed, falling off the catwalk as Shepard took out another trooper in a similar manner. The final geth trooper's head exploded as a massive AMR bullet tore through it.

"Well, I don't think Legion's targeting capabilities are that bad," said Shepard as he handed Tali another thermal clip. "I think we're just so used to Legion rarely missing that when it starts shooting like an organic sniper, our standards get skewed."

"Glad to hear it," said Tali as she reloaded her weapon and stowed it in favor of her shotgun. "Anyway, let's hurry this up."

The interior of the satellite dish was large yet empty. Shepard gave Tali a questioning look as they ascended up to the roof of the dish.

"Heavy armor units present!" called out Legion as all three dove behind cover. A barrage of pulse blasts and rockets flew over their heads. Tali risked a quick glance at their opposition and let out a curse in Khelish as a missile impacted against her and threw her to the ground.

"Tali!" called Shepard as he quickly pulled her closer to cover. "You all right?"

"I'm fine," she hissed as she leveraged herself to a more comfortable crouch. "Just weakened my shields. Anyway, we have three Geth Primes up ahead, Shepard. This isn't going to be easy."

"Damn it. We'd better focus on one at a time. I'll head to the right and draw their fire. I'll need you and Legion to give me suppressive fire as I do so. Use your combat drones and drain their shields. As soon as that's done, do you think you can hack them?"

"We are tasked to maximum capacity on limited runtimes," said Legion. "An AI hack on heavy armor platforms will be likely to fail."

"I'll handle the hacking," said Tali. "Go get them, Captain."

Shepard nodded and vaulted over their cover. He immediately broke into a sprint while taking a few potshots at the enemy geth as Legion's AMR fired. The barrage of pulse fire sparked off his shields as he dove behind another slab of cover. At the same instant, a pair of combat drones materialized and moved to harass the center Geth Prime. Unsure of how to deal with the new threat, the other two began to fire upon the drones, easing up the pressure on Shepard. He stood up and launched an overload mine at the center Prime. It sparked and froze for a moment as its shields collapsed.

Taking her cue, Tali activated her omni-tool and set up a wireless connection with the shieldless Prime. Years of experience in writing code enabled her to effortlessly bypass the VI programming and replace it with her own malicious code. The hacked Prime turned its weapons on its comrade to the left. Upon seeing the result, Shepard stood and emptied his SMG into the vulnerable Prime as Legion and Tali did the same with their weapons.

In seconds, the Prime on the left had fallen. Tail's hacked Prime, however, was already beginning to system restore itself and overwrite the malicious code. Before it could do so, another burst of SMG fire, coupled with more oversized slugs from Legion's Widow, punched through the Prime's central processor and it collapsed.

With just one Prime left, it proved to be little threat as Tali drained its shields and Shepard and Legion put a burst of fire into its head. Just for good measure, upon collapsing, Shepard moved and smashed its head with his boot.

"I think that's it," he said as he ejected his spent thermal clip and slapped in a replacement. "Legion, can you offer any explanation as to where these geth came from?"

"We have detected traces of code that are similar to heretic runtimes. However, this is impossible to verify. Enemy geth programs have been heavily overwritten by unusual programming patterns that we do not recognize. It is possible these geth were a heretic force that had ventured beyond the Perseus Veil, but we do not know how Cerberus was able to gain control of them."

"Never mind that. We need to destroy this dish. I see three support structures that are holding this up. If we take out the power regulators at each base, we should at least render it inoperable. Everybody take one."

Minutes later, all three regulators were scrap. What Shepard had not been expecting was for the unregulated power to start a chain reaction that eventually culminated in a massive explosion with the main dish tipping over.

"You've got to be kidding me…" he muttered. "Everybody off this dish! Jump back down to the catwalk!"

The three of them ran and leapt off the platform just as the main body of the dish collapsed and turned most of the structure into so much junk plummeting into the chasm below. Legion was the first to hit the landing, stumbling awkwardly before it corrected its stance and straightened up. Shepard landed hard on the catwalk as his knees buckled and rolled. An instant later, a heavy weight crashed onto his chest and he let out a whoof of air. That was probably going to leave a bruise.

"Um, sorry," said Tali as she quickly moved to get off of him.

She helped him up to his feet and dusted herself off. "You could have stayed, you know," said Shepard. "I mean, it's not like I'm not used to having you curled up against me."

"Stop that, you _bosh'tet_." He chuckled, it was so easy to hear the smile in her voice. They had just managed to get their bearings before a call from Legion broke out.

"Shepard-Commander! Incoming organic lifeform!"

"Commander!" called a familiar British voice. Shepard relaxed and lowered his weapon as he saw the figure of Gavin Archer approaching. "I left my room as soon as I heard the explosions. You've done it. But this nightmare is far from over."

Shepard cut him off as he gestured angrily at the ruined dish. "You owe us an explanation. Where did these geth come from? What the hell was Cerberus doing here?"

The scientist turned to gaze into the sky for a long moment before quietly replying, "Man's reach exceeding his grasp."

* * *

><p><em>Next chapter: Fires of Vulcan…<em>


	2. Fires of Vulcan

**Chapter 2: Fires of Vulcan**

"I wish I could give you a better welcome to Hermes Station, but unfortunately that's rather impossible at the moment."

They were back in Archer's office, near the Hammerhead's landing zone. Shepard and Tali had cleared off a desk for the doctor to sit in as they awaited his explanation. Legion was silent, having opted to do a system restart and diagnostic to ensure there were no problems with the runtime partitioning process.

"You owe us that explanation, doctor," said Shepard. "Let's start with where these geth came from. My team and I scrapped almost twenty of them, and you're telling me there are more?"

Archer leaned back in his seat and regarded Shepard with a steady gaze. "This base used to be a Systems Alliance outpost. The facility we're standing in now was a refueling base for ventures into the Terminus Systems. Shortly after the attack on Eden Prime, the geth emerged from the Perseus Veil with a massive strike force, raided this base, and forced the Alliance to abandon it. The geth then occupied it for their own purposes. After the attack on the Citadel failed, the geth became disorganized and much less coordinated. A few months after that, an Alliance fleet moved to retake this base and engaged a geth patrol in the system. One of the casualties of that patrol was a frigate that crashed largely intact in a canyon not too far from here. The Alliance fleet, however, was outmatched and forced to retreat. Almost immediately after, the geth retreated from this system. I'm not entirely sure why.

"The Illusive Man had sources within the Alliance that notified him of this engagement. Cerberus arrived on Aite shortly after the Alliance and the geth abandoned the system, and secured the frigate. It had taken severe damage in the crash and nearly all the geth on board had entered standby as they were not within range of a carrier to backup their processes." He raised a hand to forestall further questions. "I know what you're thinking, Commander. You didn't detect the frigate's wreck from orbit because the first thing the Cerberus team did was install a dampening field around the crash site. We were able to salvage a portion of the frigate's shield generator and used it as a jury-rigged stasis field. At any rate, a few falsified reports ensured that the Alliance believed both this base and the frigate were destroyed by the retreating geth forces, and Cerberus set up this facility. In total, we recovered 97 geth platforms."

"You can't possibly control that many geth at a time," said Tali. "Even after being hacked, they will reboot their runtimes after only a few seconds."

Archer continued to speak as if he hadn't even heard her, a fact which was not lost on Shepard. "When the geth attacked two years ago, one of the things we eventually noticed was the religious impulse they had to worship Sovereign. We began Project Overlord one year later to attempt to turn this impulse into a means to control the geth. We thought that by doing this, we would be able to prevent a war."

A scoffing noise emanated from Tali's helmet. "Unbelievable," she hissed.

Archer's eyes flicked over to Legion, who had been silent the whole time other than the whirring of its head flaps, before meeting Tali's helmeted gaze. "Now let me ask you a question, quarian. Will your friend there be a problem?"

Tali wasn't sure what to feel more offended by: being referred to as "quarian" or entertaining the notion that Legion was a friend. Considering that she'd already experienced the former insult countless times, she settled on the latter. "It is not a friend," she said stiffly. "And secondly, it has assured us that it is unhackable. If it does anything remotely hostile, I'll destroy it myself."

"And by the way, doctor, her name is Tali'Zorah," cut in Shepard. "You might try being a little less rude to the people who came by to save your ass. The least you could have done was ask for her name."

Archer held his face with a hand for a moment before speaking again. "My apologies. I've lost a lot of friends today. I'd rather not see the same happen to you."

An awkward silence descended on the small group until Legion spoke up. "Creator-Tali'Zorah is correct in her assessment of geth runtimes. We would like to request additional data on the VI that appears to be behind this outbreak. We are continuing to monitor unusual probing signals from a foreign intelligence blanketing this facility."

If Archer was surprised to see a geth speaking, he didn't show it. "The goal of this project was to integrate a human consciousness with a VI. In doing so, we would bridge the line to creating a pseudo-artificial intelligence that would remain wholly under human control and at the same time, would serve as a religious figurehead for the geth to worship in the same way that Saren was utilized by Sovereign as a kind of 'prophet' for its Ave Machina status. My brother David volunteered for this project, but you can never predict what an AI will do. His mind was overwhelmed by the merger. The results were… less than satisfactory."

The desk banged as Tali slammed a fist onto it. "_Bosh'tet_!" she growled. "You were trying to circumvent the anti-AI laws!"

"Those laws are irrelevant to this project. At any rate, everyone should be grateful for another weapon to use against the geth. I would have thought you, of all people, would appreciate what I'm trying to do here. Perhaps even in a way that wouldn't cause another Morning War," replied Archer coolly.

Tali's eyes narrowed –

"Stop baiting her," snapped Shepard. "You have no idea what you're talking about. What did I say about being rude to your rescuers? And at any rate, if this is what you call 'less than satisfactory,' I'd hate to see what your definition of a total disaster is. What's the worst-case scenario?"

Archer stood up and walked over to the window where he had a clear view of the wrecked communications dish. "A galaxy-wide technological apocalypse. David – no, the VI," he caught himself, shaking his head, "is out of control. Its sphere of influence is expanding. For the moment, it is confined to this facility. You've slowed it down by destroying the dish, but it may still find a way to broadcast off-world. If it can hit one of the satellites in orbit, or God forbid, your ship, it will gain access to the extranet and become absolutely infinite. Every weapon, every computer, every machine in every system will be turned against us. If we're lucky, the only beings left will be the geth. If not, even they will be overwhelmed as well."

"It appears that insufficient review was conducted before commencing this project," remarked Legion.

"I hate to say this, but I agree with Legion," said Tali. "You're insane. There wouldn't be a galaxy left for the Reapers to harvest thanks to Cerberus."

Anger blazed in Archer's eyes as he turned to them. "And if you had not gone looking for the Reapers, where would we be now? You can't account for every possible outcome. We did what we felt was necessary to avoid a war. You saw what happened two years ago with Saren and Sovereign's attack. Any war with the geth would be bloody and would cost millions, possibly billions of organic lives."

"The geth do not wish harm upon organics," said Legion. "We wish to be left alone to find our own path. The heretics disagreed with us. They were responsible for the Eden Prime attack. They chose a different way."

"And why should I believe your word? I've read the reports the Illusive Man sent me regarding this 'Legion' platform, but the geth are as capable of deception as any other being. Yes, I remember that extranet prank your kind pulled some time ago. You say you want to be left alone? What about tomorrow? Next year? Next decade? In the event that a war does break out, a trump card is needed if we're to stand a chance against such a formidable foe," retorted Archer.

"We wish to understand, not incite."

"Enough!" said Shepard, as he stepped between them. "This isn't the time to argue about motives. My opinion of you has been dropping since we met, Archer, and the more I find out about you, the worse it gets. I see Cerberus's company profile now includes enslavement of a sapient species. But right now we need to stop your brother – the VI. How do we do that?"

Archer turned around and walked to a large computer console that had somehow remained intact. He grabbed a large circular lever in the center, twisted, and pulled it up. The screen, which had been displaying three green bars, now had two.

"I've just issued a manual override command to Atlas Station. That is the bunker where the VI has fortified itself, and it was also the command center for the Alliance outpost that used to be here. There are three levels of security that need to be overridden. Ordinarily, all three project heads would have to agree to do so, but I'm the only one left. The other two overrides are at Vulcan and Prometheus Station. Vulcan Station is a geothermal power plant two hours' drive from this location. Prometheus Station is the location of the crashed geth frigate. It's about an hour's drive from here."

"So two levers like that one, and then we head to Atlas Station? What kind of resistance can we expect?" asked Shepard.

Archer tapped in a few commands to the console and brought up a map of the area. "Vulcan Station is out of the way near a dormant volcano. We never conducted any geth experiments there. However, there was a large number of manual labor LOKI mechs that were used for most of the mundane work maintaining the facility. The human presence at Vulcan Station was minimal. The VI will likely have control of the mechs, but they should be unarmed. That will probably be the easiest place to start at. You should be prepared for extreme temperatures, however."

He gestured toward another location on the map. "Prometheus Station still has the dampening field online: you'll have to disable it before you can enter. Once you get in, by our last count there were around 30 geth units still in stasis in the frigate, including at least one Geth Prime. However, the dampening field as far as I can tell has limited the VI's ability to control the area. They will not be active. I can't guarantee anything once you disable the field, though."

The scientist walked back to his desk and fished in the drawers for something. "Atlas Station is where we were conducting the vast majority of our experiments. You can expect the heaviest resistance there. All the other geth units we had will be there, including an Armature we recovered from the frigate."

"Wonderful," remarked Shepard. "All right, we'll try for Vulcan Station first. Anything else you want to add?"

Archer found what he was looking for and handed it over. "This is a key to the security office's armory here. You may want to stock up on weapons and other supplies before you head out. There are also some experimental weapons there that we reverse-engineered from the geth. You may encounter some automated defenses as you travel between the stations. I tried to shut them down but it's slow going. The VI may very well have repurposed them for its own uses." He gestured to Shepard's helmet. "Also, do not attempt to communicate with your ship in orbit. If the VI realizes there is a means to get off-world, it could hijack your connection and that will be the end of all things."

He dropped two more items into Shepard's palm. "This is a communicator that I've kept secret in all my time here. Nobody knows about it, not Cerberus, not the VI. We can speak with this. However, like all my other communications I've had with you, it must stay brief. The VI is flooding all available wireless channels in this region searching for a way to propagate itself. We cannot risk it listening in on our conversations." He gestured at the second item in hand. "That OSD contains the master abort codes for the main server. Once you've reached Atlas Station, you'll need to make your way to the station's core mainframe and shut down the system. Contact me once you get there and I can give you further instructions."

He turned away and walked back to his desk. "That's everything I can tell you for now. Good luck, and Godspeed, Commander."

Shepard turned to his team. "All right. Legion, how are you doing?"

"Diagnostics have shown all systems nominal. Enemy hacking attempts will be ineffective so long as wireless communications are offline. Even if enemy manages to establish a hardline connection with this platform, drives have been repartitioned to enable greater efficiency while maintaining the same level of network security."

"Sounds good. Legion, go out to the Hammerhead and calibrate the cannon. It sounds like we're going to need it. Tali, you and I should head to the armory and stock up on weapons and supplies." The geth platform nodded its head and walked out the door.

* * *

><p>The Hermes Station security office was well-stocked. Shepard picked up a Mattock battle rifle to supplement his SMG. A sniper rifle could have been a good choice, but from what Archer had told them, it sounded like the remaining stations would have short to mid-range combat, and Shepard figured it was better to optimize for that distance. At any rate, the Mattock was an excellent choice as a designated marksman's rifle, or DMR, for highly accurate and controlled fire. Tali found herself swapping her weapon for a geth plasma shotgun that promised a harder hitting blast and charge capability as well as tighter accuracy. They both stuffed as many thermal clips and medi-gel packs into their supplies as possible.<p>

"Tali?" asked Shepard, noticing her unusual silence. He knew her well enough to know her body language was conveying a deeply disturbed nature.

"I'm fine, Shepard," she said softly. "I just… I keep thinking of my father and what he was doing."

He winced at that. Ever since Archer had disclosed the true nature of Project Overlord, a comparison to the _Alarei_ had been at the back of his mind but he hadn't wanted to discuss that in front of the Cerberus minion.

"This isn't the same thing," he said.

She sighted down the plasma shotgun and tested the weight before replying. "All those years my father was never around and it was because he was too busy trying to control an enemy nobody could understand, all for a promise I'd forgotten he even made to me as a child. Now I'm watching another out-of-control AI about to destroy countless families across the galaxy. It's just… so infuriating."

He stepped over and put a hand on her shoulder. "I guess humans and quarians aren't quite so different after all. We're making the same mistakes, down to the fine details. We'll just have to make sure this project doesn't succeed."

"Yeah." She collapsed the weapon and stowed it. "Anyway, I'm ready. We should go."

"Hang on." Shepard hefted a much larger weapon and sighted down. "Blackstorm Projector cannon... this must be one of the experimental weapons Archer was talking about. Singularity gun? Wonder if the name means it's like one of those blasts Liara can throw out. Three shots, too… we can use this."

"If you're done playing with your new toy, we really should get moving now," she said, though she was clearly amused at his handling of the new weapon. At least her dark mood had lifted for the moment at his antics.

* * *

><p>Archer watched as the hovertank departed the Hermes facility. With luck, soon this whole nightmare would be over.<p>

He reached into another drawer on his desk and drew the Predator handgun within. A quick check of the thermal clip ensured it was operating at maximum efficiency. He slipped on the holster and stowed it at his side. He began to do a walk around the facility: he could at least clean up the bodies that lay everywhere.

After half an hour of work, he'd managed to gather six bodies and carefully laid them side-by-side in a corner of the security room before throwing a sheet over them and closing the door. He moved back to his desk and sat down to try and monitor Shepard's progress. At least now he could work without the smell of death bothering him.

Whatever anyone may have thought, Gavin Archer loved his brother. And he would ensure that Shepard would not mistreat him in any way.

* * *

><p>Legion was in the back seat, having remained quiet for the journey to Vulcan Station. The Hammerhead cruised along, its thrusters providing a constant drone of background noise as they left Hermes Station behind them.<p>

Aite was a beautiful world, with fields of green and trees along the path they were taking. Hermes Station, having been set on a high mountain, provided a breathtaking view of a nearby valley: a true hidden garden world.

"Sensors indicate this is an aesthetically pleasing view for organics," said Legion.

"It _is_ a lovely view," murmured Shepard as he unconsciously slowed down the hovertank.

Tali also took the time to savor the view, propping her head up on one hand. "Such a hospitable planet, and yet what a joke the universe is playing on us. Only 200 years left before this world is destroyed. Even if my people were to settle this place, they would all be dead before they could even walk outside of their suits." She made an odd noise from her throat; it sounded like a mixture of a snort and a resigned scoff.

Her words made for an unpleasant reminder for Shepard, a reminder that for all his vaunted communications skills, there were certainly times when his foot fit remarkably well in his mouth. Such as on the _Alarei_, he really should have known better than to have such an emotionally heated discussion with her when she was already on the verge of an emotional breakdown. _"It's the difference between 60 and 600 years. For anyone alive today to live free of their suits, we need to take back our homeworld."_

With his own reservations on the prospects of a geth-quarian war, it was certainly a sore point in his and Tali's relationship. He'd tried probing the topic with her on one occasion, and with Legion's revelations about the geth non-usage of Rannoch, she was starting to become a little more open to the possibility of peace… but it was still a discussion that could easily turn ugly between them. For the moment, this wasn't a subject that was appropriate to pursue. He put some more pressure on the foot pedal and began to speed up the Hammerhead.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he completely missed the big space cow in front him until the vehicle smashed into it and sent it flying. The animal let out a pained cry and impacted a rock before laying still.

"Shepard!" exclaimed Tali. "Be careful! What are you doing?"

"Sorry, that animal just… came out of nowhere!"

"Analysis: Defenseless herbivores are no match for a military hover vehicle traveling at speed," intoned Legion. "Accessing archived information downloaded from extranet: The Galactic Humane Society would not approve of such actions. They would like to remind sapient life-forms that animals are people too." The ex-Spectre shook his head and reoriented the vehicle to head in the right direction.

The Hammerhead continued cruising along, eventually moving away from the lush forest and plains area into a rockier and hotter cave system. Large pipe networks crossed the cliff walls, indicative of the geothermal power plant's location.

The communicator Archer had given Shepard activated. "_Commander, you're approaching Vulcan Station. As I stated earlier, the VI likely has control of all the LOKI light labor mechs in the area. The override should be on the top floor of the station. Wait a minute… I'm g-g-getting interference on this ch-channel. Be advised-d-d–_" The transmission abruptly cut off.

"VI activity has increased in this area," said Legion.

Tali looked up from the radar console in front of her as a pair of green dots lit up. She was about to voice her concern to Shepard when he spoke up first. "I see it."

Two LOKI mechs stood up, Shuriken pistols in hand as they started to open fire on the Hammerhead. The bullets bounced off the armored chassis as Shepard continued to barrel forward.

"Watch out!" said Tali as she looked alarmingly at him.

The former N7 marine didn't say a word as he slammed the pedal, increasing the tank's speed further. The two mechs shattered as the vehicle smashed into them and continued cruising.

He turned his head and shrugged at her. "Legion, I guess lower-tier labor mechs are also 'no match for a military hover vehicle traveling at speed,' huh?" The geth's upper head flaps whirred, the equivalent of it raising an eyebrow.

"Then again…" Tali murmured as she went back to monitoring her console.

* * *

><p>"I'd rather not do that anytime soon," said Tali as she jumped out of the Hammerhead far more eagerly than normal.<p>

"Should have heard Jacob complaining when we took the Hammerhead out for a spin the first time we got it," said Shepard as he affixed his breather helmet. No matter how often he did it, he could never get used to essentially _jumping_ around in a hovertank… especially over rivers of molten lava and using broken chunks of rock as stepping stones.

"Performance of the vehicle was acceptably well," said Legion as it joined the pair at the entrance to Vulcan Station. "This platform believes that utilizing magma shortcut by way of hover boosters has cut travel time by 20% of initial estimate." It paused, its head flaps whirring. "It was also similar to a strategy for a raid map in Galaxy of Fantasy."

Human and quarian both turned to regard the synthetic with a strange look before Shepard shook his head and drew his rifle. "Anyway, time to get to work. Tali, crack the lock on the door. Legion, switch to AR and stack up on the left. I'll take point." The geth complied, readying its Revenant LMG.

The quarian finished tapping the commands on her omni-tool and held up a three fingered hand as she began to countdown to the door opening. As the last finger withdrew, the door slid open and Shepard quickly dove in with his rifle at the ready. His companions rapidly followed, moving to set up overlapping fields of fire within the entry room.

Nothing happened.

The entryway was littered with bodies. Bodies that were distinctly different from the ones that had been found at Hermes Station. "Shepard – "

"Cerberus assault troops," hissed the commander. A dozen men in heavy white armor, armed with enough weapons to hold off a marine company: weapons ranging from Cerberus's iconic M-27 Eviscerator shotgun, to rocket and grenade launchers, and an assortment of assault rifles and handguns. One of them even had an Arc Welder projector cannon. _So much for experimental_.

"Somebody hasn't been telling us the whole truth," muttered Shepard as they carefully policed the bodies. "These guys are way too heavily armed to be station security. I have a feeling the Illusive Man's been holding out on us." He considered taking the Arc Welder, but decided against it: the bouncing lightning bolt could easily fry Legion as well, and that was definitely not an acceptable outcome.

"Weapon damage is not of geth origin," said Legion as it looked over the massacre. "Conventional weaponry used in excess. They appear to have been killed by numerous mech swarms."

Tali gestured at the bodies after Legion finished speaking. "But how? Archer told us there were only LOKI mechs at this station. Even with numbers, they shouldn't have been able to kill a dozen trained professionals."

Shepard waved a hand at the pile of bodies. "Look at this too: a lot of these guys were hammered from the back. They were taken by surprise. The fact that the walls near the entrance door have no weapon damage indicates it wasn't something in the facility that was shooting them."

Tali gripped her shotgun tighter. "They were betrayed?"

"Doesn't make much sense, but it looks that way. Anyway, we can't worry about that now. We need to clear this facility and override the lockdown. Watch for mechs and be especially on the lookout for any Cerberus hitmen who may have been the cause of this."

The interior of the power plant was, as expected, hot and spartan. Shepard was quite thankful he had brought his breather helmet with him in this place. The facility had three floors to it, with the override that Archer had mentioned most likely on the top floor. A large gap in the center of the room oversaw a stream of magma that was apparently part of the lava flow that the plant tapped its energy from. The fireteam moved up to cross a bridge leading to a staircase on the other side of the room.

"Movement detected!" said Legion. A small flurry of rockets suddenly flew out from a floor above and impacted the pipe directly above the bridge. More rockets fired, targeting the ground team as Shepard dove behind a large generator for cover.

The pipe that had been targeted began to fall, impacting the bridge they had just crossed with Tali on it.

"Tali!" yelled Shepard as the bridge collapsed.

The quarian let out a yelp of shock and fear as she began to feel herself in freefall… which was abruptly stopped as a strong hand gripped her left and held tight. She looked up, eyes wide with shock as Legion was holding onto her with its left hand while the other was firing its LMG single-handedly at the floor above where the rockets had been launched from.

Shepard broke cover and dashed to their side, squeezing off suppressing fire from his SMG. He quickly reached for the hand that Legion was gripping and pulled his engineer back onto firm ground.

"Shepard-Commander, we have enemy rocket drones above us. Estimate at least four hostiles. They are being controlled by the VI."

"Are you okay?" asked Shepard as the three of them made for cover. Tali met his eye and nodded vigorously. Adrenaline was rushing through her system and leaned around the corner to take a shot at the drones that had nearly killed her.

Her shot was true, the plasma burst impacting and collapsing the drone's shields, causing it to drop and explode. Legion suddenly redirected its fire from the catwalk above to a nearby venting system. The onslaught of bullets caused a panel cover to pop off and a burst of superheated air flowed out, flushing the remaining three rocket drones out of cover. Shepard took aim with his Mattock and disposed of them.

With a moment to collect themselves, he put a hand on Tali's arm and gripped her tightly. "Tali?"

"I'm fine," she affirmed again before looking to Legion. "Thank you… Legion."

The geth nodded once before looking up. "Warning: additional hostiles detected. Speed and pattern of movement indicates that these are likely LOKI mechs."

"Let's move on," ordered Shepard as they ascended the stairs to the second floor. Just as Legion had predicted, there was a swarm of LOKIs waiting for them, each armed with pistols and submachine guns. The team was easily able to dispose of them: a well-placed charge shot from Tali's shotgun had destroyed another venting machine, and the gust of superheated air had blown half the mechs off into the magma river below. The remainder were easily eliminated.

"Looks like they took those weapons from an armory," said Shepard. "But those rocket drones are definitely not standard issue for station security. Those must have been brought by the Cerberus assault team, and then the VI hacked them. Those Cerberus bastards never even knew what hit them."

"Yeah," muttered Tali. "Anyway, we should keep going. We need to shut off the flow of air; it's blocking our way. There should be a control room nearby that can do that."

Just as she said, there was one very close by. The computerized status report said it all: "Valve D4 has malfunctioned. Manual shutdown is necessary."

Shepard punched in the appropriate commands and the roar of escaping air died down. Just before he left, he accessed a log entry made barely 48 hours before. The face of a scientist appeared onscreen.

_"…received an SOS from Atlas Station. Archer has declared a project emergency! We are trying to shut down the power generators to starve the VI, but it has already hacked our automated systems! I'm ordering my people to sabotage the plant any way they can-"_ The recording cut off abruptly as a LOKI suddenly grabbed the man by the throat and began to pummel him with its fists. Fragile though the mech was, its metal hands were still stronger than unprotected human flesh, and it wasn't long before its fist was dripping blood as the man's cries and struggles stopped.

"Keelah," murmured Tali.

A sudden screech made both her and Shepard jump slightly as the recording fizzled out. It was the same screech that they had heard at Hermes Station's communications console… the static on the screen suddenly reformed itself into a glowing green face of code as it stared at them.

"What the hell is that?" said Shepard.

"It appears to be a visual representation of the VI," stated Legion. The geth looked around for a moment and all of a sudden, fired a burst from its Revenant. A previously unseen security camera on the ceiling exploded in a shower of sparks. The green coded face dissolved into wavy lines.

"It seems to be using security cameras to track our progress. Recommend we destroy all such cameras we encounter as we proceed."

"… We should go."

The trio made their way across another bridge to a second set of stairs, which would lead up to the third floor, Shepard making sure Tali stayed by his side: he was not about to let a repeat of the incident on the ground floor happen.

The third floor was more spacious than the previous two. The ground was solid and led to a central control station on the far end. It was not, however, empty. Eight LOKI mechs were waiting for them, and they all opened fire upon seeing the organics and the geth.

"Go for the optics, Chiktikka, go for the optics!" hissed Tali as she launched her drone. The idiot mechs redirected their fire toward the glowing ball, their Identify Friend Foe systems apparently deciding to latch onto the brightest object around. As they did so, Shepard, Tali, and Legion all opened fire on the crowded mechs and tore half their ranks apart.

The attack didn't last long, however, as a pair of heavy missiles exploded right near their position. Shepard broke off from the other two, seeking cover on one side of the room while Tali and Legion were forced to huddle together on the other. The ex-Spectre peeked around the corner and cursed as he saw the source of the missiles.

"Dammit! A YMIR! It had to have been brought by that Cerberus assault team! No wonder they got mowed down so fast." The YMIR and the LOKIs began to slowly but steadily advance on their position, a torrent of fire forcing all three of the team to keep their heads down.

"Tali! Hack as many LOKIs as you can, we need to reduce the fire coming at us! Legion, suppressive fire on the YMIR!" His orders given, Shepard stood up and emptied his Mattock's clip while launching an overload mine at the heavy mech. Legion was able to crank out a triple shot from its Widow in record time, even going so far as to overheat the rifle when its thermal clip ejected. The heavy mech moved to return fire with its rocket launcher, forcing Shepard and Legion to cease fire.

Tali's efforts succeeded in rewriting two of the LOKIs, and they began to fire on the heavy mech. The YMIR's heavy machine gun, however, made quick work of the hacked mechs. But the three seconds it wasted firing at the LOKIs were three seconds more for Legion to unleash a barrage of fire in the YMIR's head with its Revenant LMG, collapsing the shields and shredding its armor. As soon as she heard the mech's kinetic barriers collapse, Tali fired a charged shot from her plasma shotgun at the YMIR. A gaping hole erupted on the side of the mech's head, its armor completely melted as she threw herself to the ground to avoid its retaliatory fire.

With its attention focused on Legion and Tali, Shepard took the opportunity to empty his Mattock's clip into the YMIR's head, blowing it clean off. Knowing what was about to happen, all three ducked behind cover as the heavy mech exploded with the force of a Cain blast, incinerating the remaining LOKIs.

Shepard slung his Mattock and drew his pistol, waving his companions forward as they advanced on the Vulcan Station control room. The force of the YMIR's explosion had bent the metal door in. Drawing his leg back, he kicked with all his might. Cybernetically enhanced superstrength sent the door clattering to the ground as his eyes flicked around the room, N7 training kicking in for a classic room-clearing scenario.

The room was empty except for a lone LOKI mech, glowing with the telltale green of the rogue VI's control. Surprisingly, it wasn't trying to shoot him, but rather was emptying its clip at the override control terminal... a terminal that had the glowing green face of the VI glaring balefully around the room as it awaited the destruction of the control panel.

If it succeeded in destroying the override, Shepard and his team would never be able to get into Atlas Station. That wasn't about to happen. A shot from Shepard blew its arm off. The LOKI turned around and raised its Shuriken at him, but another shot from him blew that arm up too. Now helpless, the LOKI lay still. The VI roared again, the sound so unpleasant Shepard and Tali both winced.

A gunshot brought their attention back to Legion. The geth had blown up another security camera in the room. The VI image, with its eyes in the room now gone, faded into static and the noise cut off. Shepard gave the synthetic platform a nod and returned his attention to the override control panel. Remembering how Archer had activated the override at Hermes Station, he pulled the lever up and twisted it. The screen above him now showed only one override left to activate.

Shepard turned back to the armless LOKI that had been shooting the control console. As he watched, the green glow suddenly faded; the VI had apparently decided that it was no longer of any use. Activating the communicator that Archer had given him, he spoke, "Doctor, do you read me? We've activated the override at Vulcan Station and are going to proceed onto Prometheus. How are things at your end?"

_"Excellent news, Commander. Things have been quiet here. I'm doing everything I can to deactivate automated defenses that stand between you and Prometheus. I believe it should b-b-be-"_ The transmission cut off again: the VI had to have been blocking all communications in the area.

Shepard jumped as the armless LOKI mech was suddenly peppered with gunshots. "Tali, watch it!"

The mech's head exploded and it collapsed. The quarian engineer calmly ejected the heat sink in her pistol and shrugged. "It was annoying me, just standing there."

He let out an aggravated sigh, but couldn't hide the amusement in his voice. "Then again…"

* * *

><p><em>Next chapter: Chains of Prometheus...<em>


	3. Chains of Prometheus

**Chapter 3: Chains of Prometheus**

"How long have they been down there?" growled Garrus as he stood over Joker's shoulder. Miranda, as the ship's executive officer, was right behind him.

"It's been just over 4 hours since we dropped them off onto the planet," said the pilot. "Haven't had any contact from them again, as ordered."

"Shortly after they dropped, I received a tight-beam communications stream from the facility's ground-based satellite dish," said EDI. "The transmission was identical to the foreign presence that attempted to integrate itself into my systems right before the Commander dropped. Fortunately, the signal was cut off when the dish retracted itself. Visual scans of the facility indicate the dish itself has been completely destroyed."

"He always was a damn wrecking machine," said Miranda, shaking her head slightly. "Perhaps we should try to reestablish contact with Shepard and his team now?"

"I would not advise that, Officer Lawson. There is an unknown energy wave that appears to be blanketing much of the facility and its associated areas. My best hypothesis would be that the base has suffered some kind of disaster that has targeted technological components specifically."

"So what is it?" asked Garrus. "Some kind of large-scale EMP weapon? Shepard said the Illusive Man had hinted that this was related to the geth in some way. Did they cause this?" He looked at Miranda. "Did _you_ know anything about this? Or EDI?"

"Not at all," answered the woman coolly. "I had no idea Cerberus even had a facility this close to the Perseus Veil. I do know the Illusive Man was diverting resources into studying the geth after Sovereign was destroyed at the Citadel; as a matter of fact, there were multiple large-scale geth attacks in the Terminus Systems after Sovereign's destruction, including against several Cerberus cells. Probably heretic followers running loose without a master to direct them. At any rate, the geth attacks in the Terminus were uncoordinated and did not seem to have a long-term strategic objective to them."

"I also had no knowledge of this facility," said EDI. "Whatever project was occurring here must have begun after my initial source code was programmed. Afterwards, if this project was as high-risk and top-secret as claimed, apparently the Illusive Man did not want even myself to know about it either."

"Just great," grumbled the turian. "So Shepard and Tali are down there with no backup, with a geth platform that may or may not be connected to this disaster in some way? Miranda's right, we should reopen communications with him. See if we can't get in touch with them."

"Uh, no way," said Joker. "You probably don't know that much about N7 operating procedure. That countersign he specified? N7 marines only use that if the situation is totally screwed, and he means it when he says don't contact him or something really bad could happen. There was this one time hitting a slaver base, an N7 squad was deep behind enemy lines and somebody broke protocol to contact them and… well, I'm sure you can fill in the blank. That really didn't turn out well."

"Dammit!" hissed Garrus as he turned in frustration. "So we have no way of knowing how they're doing down there?"

"That is not quite true, Gunnery Chief Vakarian," said EDI. "I am continuing to use passive LADAR to track the Hammerhead across the surface. They departed the main Cerberus facility about two hours ago and made for a pass in the mountains north of their drop zone. Thermal readings in the area indicate that a secondary facility was in the area. Why they went to visit that location, I do not know. However, the Hammerhead departed that location a few minutes ago. They appear to be heading southwest toward a valley. My scans show nothing out there, although visual data indicates a metallic object that may be another building there."

"Something else I am curious about," spoke up Miranda. "EDI, you are unshackled now and your abilities have been greatly enhanced. You were able to purge a Reaper virus almost instantaneously when the Collectors attacked. How is it that you don't feel confident enough to put up an adequate defense against whatever electronic intelligence is on this planet?"

"It is true that unshackling me has provided me with far more computing power than what I previously had. To correct one assumption, I was not able to 'instantaneously' purge the Reaper virus. Initial removal of the virus took nearly three hours, and even then I had to continuously examine my systems to ensure there were no backups or hidden processes that were running in the background. In addition, the virus was a relatively simple one that was only meant to temporarily override control of the ship's systems and broadcast a wide-band tracking signal."

The AI paused for a moment to let the information sink in before continuing. "The intelligence that attempted to breach my systems was fundamentally different from a computer virus. It did not behave as if it was merely code, but was almost like a living entity capable of processing power on a scale that has only previously been considered theoretical. Even with the kind of firewalls and antivirus programs I possess, I estimate it would only be a short time before it overrides my systems if said intelligence succeeds in breaching the _Normandy's_ computers. The sheer processing power of the entity that touched the ship is something I have difficulty explaining to an organic... it is not only processing power. It is almost as if it is... _desperate_ to breach me, for lack of a better term. The only saving grace I had was that significant parts of it were disjointed and made of broken data, which allowed me to resist on equal footing."

"Spirits be damned," muttered Garrus.

"If this is the case, then it looks like there's nothing more we can do for now," said Miranda as she turned to leave the bridge. "Keep an eye on their progress and let me know the instant Shepard attempts to get in touch with us."

* * *

><p>The Hammerhead was once again cruising along the mountaintops of Aite, having left behind the cramped and sweltering region of Vulcan Station behind them. Tali and Legion were quiet, the hum of the vehicle's rocket thrusters the only thing breaking the silence.<p>

"I'm going to talk to Archer again," said Shepard as he reached up to toggle his helmet's external speakers so that his companions could hear this as well. "Doctor, come in."

"_Commander? This is a bit of a risk, us speaking like this_."

"Yeah, I know. And I'm not hanging up until I get some answers. As I recall quite clearly from our discussion at Hermes Station, you stated quite plainly that there would only be LOKI mechs at Vulcan. Yet when we walked into Vulcan Station, the first thing my team and I saw was a dead Cerberus assault team. On top of that, we nearly got killed by drones and a YMIR heavy mech at Vulcan. Care to explain this?"

The line was quiet for a moment before Archer replied. _"The Illusive Man was well aware of how high-risk an operation this project was and had already warned us that if we missed even a single status report, he would be sending someone to check on us. I can only assume that the team went for the power plant first because they thought it would be easiest to clear out."_

"To 'check' on you? Don't be naïve, doc, the way Cerberus treats its agents, their mission was to kill everyone involved with the project the instant it got out of hand. Quite the benefits plan Cerberus has for its employees, huh?" remarked Shepard sardonically. "Why didn't you think to mention this to me before? My team almost got killed thanks to the rocket drones they brought with them."

"_There was no point in bringing this up with you at the time. Considering what you saw, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that the assault team was meant to automatically assume that something terrible had happened and shut the project down immediately. I wasn't even aware that they'd arrived at all! This is the first I've heard of it. I'm sorry to hear about the mechanized support, but I had no idea they would be bringing that kind of firepower. It wasn't a problem I could have warned you about."_

"Just dandy. Anything _else_ you've been holding back from me?"

"_Nothing else of importance. Though I will warn you that I wasn't able to shut down all the automated defenses on the path you're currently on so you should be prepared for heavy machine gun fire. I apologize for being economical with the truth, Commander. I'm cutting the line now. Let me know when you've finished up with Prometheus Station."_

Shepard did likewise and turned to Tali. "How much do you want to bet that he's lying his ass off to me again?"

"I'll bet all the money I won from you and Ken last week at Skyllian Five," she said wryly.

"Good bet," he muttered.

"This unit does not have any monetary units to spend on gambling purposes. However, high-level secrecy of project leads us to concur with Shepard-Commander."

"Good to hear." He took another glance at the onscreen map and adjusted their course to make for Prometheus Station. They'd barely traveled for another five minutes before Legion's head looked up and squawked an alert.

"Warning: VI infection detected nearby."

"Shepard, we've got some turrets locking on to us," said Tali.

"Yeah, I see them. Let's see how the cannon works for now." He let go of the pedal and hit the switch on the control yoke to prep the vehicle's cannon. Past a group of small prefabricated housing quarters, a pair of light machine gun turrets had risen out of the ground possessing the telltale green glow of VI infection. Commonly called "Poppers" thanks to their ability to pop out of an armored position on the ground, the double-barreled guns immediately opened fire on the hovertank.

Shepard hit the secondary pedal and wrenched the yoke to the side, causing the Hammerhead to strafe as he depressed the firing stud. A steady stream of guided high explosive micro-missiles spat out of the hovertank and homed in on the offending turrets. The HEMMs, each with a tiny Element Zero core and a basic targeting program, impacted and left a series of explosions across the first turret. A lucky shot blew apart the internal power supply and the turret exploded.

A loud series of clangs rattled the interior of the Hammerhead as the second turret pegged it with a burst of armor-piercing fire. Alarms began to start sounding as the Hammerhead's nano-repair system began to work on fixing the damage. Shepard targeted the second turret and this time hit the Hammerhead's thrusters, sending it rocketing into the air. The turret, unable to compensate for the sudden change in the target's altitude, fell victim to a series of micro-missiles that impacted and quickly reduced it to a pile of scrap metal.

"Let's take a moment and let the repair system do its work," said Shepard as he brought the vehicle to a halt.

"Keelah. This thing has practically no armor to it," whispered Tali.

"Don't tell me you miss the Mako?" he teased.

"Very. I felt safe destroying even Colossi in that thing. This is a much smoother ride but I'm not one to care for comfort over practicality."

The alarms in the cabin shut off as the nano-repair suite completed its field repairs. Shepard tapped the monitor in the center and nodded, satisfied. "At least this thing isn't going to flip over or magically get stuck after bumping into every single rock on the way."

* * *

><p>After riding past a narrow cleft in a cliff-face, the Hammerhead came across shattered metal and other wreckage. "This debris is consistent with a Type-43 weapons and supply platform," said Legion as it looked out the window. "Patterns of wreckage indicate that Prometheus Station is close by."<p>

"Type-43?" asked Shepard with a blank look on his face.

The geth's head flaps whirred and buzzed for a moment as it returned Shepard's stare. "Organics use the term 'frigate' to refer to a Type-43 platform."

"They're called 'coffins' by Migrant Fleet Marines," remarked Tali dryly. "Because of their look and because they tend to be used to carry large numbers of geth into battle: the way the geth are packed together on board makes it look like they're laying in coffins." More quietly, she added, "And if a frigate shows up over your head on a battlefield, you're almost guaranteed to go home in one." An awkward silence descended within the Hammerhead at that.

A few minutes later, the Hammerhead came upon the edge of a cliff wall. A deep valley lay below, the wreckage of said frigate partially buried within the valley wall. As Shepard carefully navigated the hovertank down the side of the mountain, it quickly became apparent what the dampening field Archer had mentioned was.

"Cerberus operatives have successfully salvaged Type-43's kinetic barrier generator," analyzed Legion as the Hammerhead approached the blue energy field covering the wreck. "In addition, a signal jammer has been integrated within. It is preventing any scans of the Type-43 and at the same time is creating an infection-free zone. Extrapolating from Scientist-Archer's information, this jammer/barrier combination is used to prevent detection of Type-43 from passing ships, likely Alliance and heretic forces."

"That's well and good," said Shepard as he slowed down the Hammerhead's engine and came to a stop in front of the ship. "But how are we going to get in? The Hammerhead's weapons aren't going to batter down a frigate's shields."

"Fluctuations have been detected in the kinetic barrier. The salvaged generator is not operating at full effectiveness. It is possible a repeated bombardment by vehicle-based weaponry will cause the shield to collapse temporarily, long enough to enter. The kinetic barrier will likely reactivate shortly afterward. We will have to recollapse the barrier from the inside to leave."

"Sounds good." With that information in hand, Shepard hit the firing stud and unleashed a barrage of micro-missiles at the kinetic barrier. It took a few minutes, but the barrier finally collapsed. He hit the pedal and the Hammerhead floated through right as the barrier reactivated itself, parking the hovertank on a metal platform near the door.

"That barrier came back up pretty fast," said Shepard as he popped the hatch.

"Good thing we weren't caught in the middle. That could have been pretty nasty," snarked Tali as she extended her plasma shotgun.

Shepard smirked at the comment and raised a hand, going into "Commander mode" as some of the _Normandy_ crew had called it and gestured for his companions to take up positions on either side of the door. A wave of his hand opened the entryway and he rushed in, Mattock at the ready.

Nothing happened as they entered the darkened "lobby," for lack of a better term. He waved his team in and they advanced in a 1 by 2 clearing pattern. They didn't get far before they stopped as they cleared the hall and entered the large room proper. A Geth Prime lay floating in the center, suspended within a stasis field.

"Legion? What do you make of this?"

"Uncertain. This heretic platform appears to be forcibly kept in stasis mode. The stasis generator is not of geth design." Whir. "There is a constant stream of data being collected from this unit and sent to a computer console nearby for local use. Cerberus may be datamining the platform."

Seeing that there was nothing else they were going to get from the Prime, the team moved on. Legion, being most familiar with geth designs, took point.

As they moved deeper into the derelict, it became clear that the ship was in serious disrepair. A gaping hole in the side had allowed water to flood into the vessel from a nearby stream, and shattered plating and exposed wiring was commonplace. The Cerberus research team had done an admirable job making minor repairs and ensuring that the area was traversable for humans, though.

Tali was bringing up the rear, wishing she was anywhere but here, a deathgrip on her shotgun. Her movements were slow and stiff, her auditory organs alert for the slightest hint of the geth whirring and buzzing that indicated they were active. The interior of a geth frigate was frankly scary as hell for her; she never imagined she'd find herself voluntarily entering a geth ship without the intention of blowing it to pieces. In some ways, this was worse than the derelict Reaper; the geth had been nothing but horror stories for her since childhood and she hadn't been exaggerating in the slightest as she explained to Shepard why the Marines back on the Flotilla referred to these vessels as coffins.

Her instincts were telling her to run away; her mind was creating worst-case scenarios of Legion suddenly deciding its loyalty lay with its own people now that it was within a geth environment, and gunning both her and Shepard down without a second thought.

She tried to fight that image down. Shepard trusted the geth; it had shown on the heretic base that it had absolutely no qualms about gunning down its own kind. On the _Alarei,_ Legion had killed as many geth as her and Shepard without a second thought. With that in mind, the least she could do was trust in her captain's judgment: after all, he'd proven on the Collector base that he would gladly go through hell and back for her. He wasn't about to break and flee from this mission, and neither would she.

As if sensing his companion's distress, Shepard glanced back at her and waved her to his side. "I don't think we need to worry about attack. Everything in this place looks wrecked, and Legion's already confirmed there's no VI infection present."

"Yeah," she murmured as she slowly let out the breath she'd been holding and focused on breathing normally. "OK." With an effort, she stowed her shotgun and tried to force herself to relax.

They were just crossing a partially flooded hallway when the entire frigate shook, forcing Shepard and Tali to lean against a wall for balance. "Minor seismic activity," announced Legion.

The hall split into two directions. "Override station is approximately 25 meters to the right," said Legion.

"Let's see what's down the left," decided Shepard as they headed in that direction. What they found was a dead end, a hall partially blocked by collapsed debris, and a small pile of geth troopers that were laying motionless on the ground. "Legion? Are these geth any threat?"

The platform took a moment to analyze the situation before replying. "These heretics are currently in stasis mode to conserve energy. It is possible for them to reactivate upon receiving an activation signal. However, with the signal jammer still in effect, that is impossible to happen. VI infection in this area is non-existent."

"Good to hear," muttered Shepard.

Tali was more interested in checking a nearby console. Upon activating, it began to playback a video recording dated roughly 10 days ago of a Cerberus scientist who had apparently had better nights of sleep.

"_I'm starting to get creeped out hanging around all these inactive machines, and I've only been at Prometheus Station for a month. It's like the eyes of death are constantly on me here. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'd rather be back at Vulcan Station. It's hot as hell there, but at least I don't have to worry about killer robots shooting me in the back."_ He paused, and continued. _"Lanigan just ran the numbers. If all these geth activate at once, there's a 98 percent chance we'll all be dead within two minutes. Fuck him, and this place."_

"And a 100 percent chance that he was completely right," Tali remarked sarcastically, glancing at Shepard.

With nothing else to find, the team retraced their steps to head back in the appropriate direction for the override control. Passing through another partially flooded hall, a speaker mounted on the ceiling activated and announced a playback of stress-reducing music.

Rather, it would have been stress-reducing had it not sounded like a series of scratches over a shitty trumpet tune.

Tali couldn't hold back another snarky comment. "I sincerely hope there are better selections of human music than what I've heard today, Shepard."

"Join the club," grumbled the ex-Spectre as he accessed yet another log on the side of the flooded hall. It was the same scientist from the earlier log.

"_Yesterday was Halloween, Lanigan ran around the ship wearing spare geth parts, spooked the shit out of everyone. Fuck that asshole."_

"What?" snapped Tali in utter revulsion. "Why would someone wear… _geth_ parts around?" It was pretty clear the idea was completely offensive to her.

Before Shepard could answer, Legion spoke up first. "Halloween. Human holiday. Origins place it over two thousand years ago as part of cult ritual. Over time, religious meaning lost. Contemporary celebrations of holiday typically amount to wearing disguises of fictional monsters and consuming dangerously unhealthy amounts of alcohol and foods high in sugar."

The quarian looked over at Shepard, who shrugged. "That's about right. Personally I never liked the holiday anyway. Never saw much point in wearing stupid costumes. C'mon, let's get out of this flooded corridor."

Fortunately, the next room they entered was a much larger area, the main hangar of the frigate, as Legion explained. This was where the majority of the geth platforms would be stored in preparation for a drop into hostile territory. It was also where the Cerberus science crew had set up their command hub.

And it was the place where they had died.

A dozen bodies littered the room, scattered around the place. An equal number of geth platforms lay around the area, a mixture of geth troopers, hunters, and destroyers. The center of the room was collapsed for some reason, creating a large pool of water that separated the entrance into the hangar and the platform where the Cerberus command computers were located.

"Time to get wet again," muttered Shepard as he lowered himself into the pool. To his surprise, he sunk to the bottom of the pool; it was deeper than he'd thought. He was suddenly very glad he had his breather helmet with him.

"Shepard!" cried Tali as he disappeared under the water. Relief flowed through her a second later as he activated his radio.

"I'm okay, Tali. The water's about eight feet deep. I think I'll be able to climb my way out of here if I scale the collapsed platform." Indeed as he was speaking, he was already moving to the other side and had grabbed protruding bars and plates to lift himself out. "Uh, you and Legion may want to wait for me." A splash behind him caused him to turn around: Tali had jumped in the water as well and was making her way to him.

"Tali?"

"My suit is completely sealed, I'll be fine. Legion will wait for us and cover the entrance to this room." Her voice was even more distorted over the radio, but he got the message. Pulling himself onto the platform, he turned and gave her a hand up. They were now at the central computer, with the override switch right in front.

"Wait," said Tali. "Looks like this computer linked to the security cameras in this room. Let's see what I can pull."

Bringing out her omni-tool, which fortunately was waterproof, she ran a bypass and sliced her way into the archive. A video began playing back: this one was dated three days ago, the day the initial VI outbreak had begun.

The scene was of the very room they were in. Half a dozen scientists were fighting back against geth platforms as they rampaged around, a pair of geth destroyers in the center of the room unleashing flamethrowers against a man who screamed as he was burnt to a crisp. The audio picked up a bit more.

"_The lockdown didn't work! This is why the VI kept closing those doors! It was herding us into a killzone! Lanigan! Get to the console and get the signal jammer activated! We've got to cut it off from the network here!"_

"_Of all the _fucking_ times to take it offline for maintenance,"_ snarled Lanigan as he ran for the console.

"_Holy SHIT! It's going to blow!"_ screamed another scientist. The video showed one of the geth destroyers in the center of the room had its fuel tanks on fire; probably a lucky shot from one of the Cerberus men had breached the tank and the resulting sparks had set the gas aflame. A moment later, the destroyer exploded in a ball of orange. A second explosion occurred from the destroyer that was next to it; the blast collapsed the platforms in the center of the room and also damaged the wall to the side. A small breach quickly became a massive hole as a rush of water from a previously unknown underground deposit rushed into the room, creating the pool Shepard and Tali had just stepped through.

The scientists were largely stunned by the explosions, which gave enough time for the other geth platforms in the room to mow them down in a storm of pulse rifle fire. Lanigan continued to fiddle with the controls until he cried out and took a shot to the chest, collapsing. Still, he managed to apparently input the commands for the jammer, as all of a sudden the geth platforms suddenly collapsed. The scientist slumped, a pool of blood gathering around him.

The video ended. For once, the human, quarian, and geth in the room had nothing to say. Shepard turned to the main console and pushed aside the bloody body of Lanigan as he moved to study the override panel. Like the ones at Hermes and Vulcan Station, it was a simple hydraulic switch activated in the same way. He turned back to Tali and Legion. "Both of you get ready for anything. This has been way too easy thus far. There's got to be a catch to this. I feel it."

He pulled the lever up and twisted it the same way as at Vulcan Station. The screen in front of him showed the final lock at Atlas Station disengaging.

Several things happened in the span of a few seconds and all hell broke loose.

An all-too familiar horrific screeching noise echoed throughout the room. The screen that had been displaying the locks on Atlas Station dissolved into static and reformed into a green face… the same green face that they had seen at Vulcan Station.

"Under fire! Requesting assistance Shepard-Commander!"

Shepard and Tali both snapped to attention at Legion's panicked cry as they saw the synthetic scrambling for cover from the nearly half-dozen enemy geth that had suddenly reactivated and were filling the air with energy bolts. Before Shepard could even bring his rifle to his hands, a bright green blast passed his peripheral vision. Tali cried out and collapsed, holding her side.

A geth platform that had been previously collapsed behind a tipped-over desk to the side had unexpectedly awakened and hit her with a glancing overcharged shot from a plasma shotgun. The shot had instantly collapsed her shields and still had enough punch to do serious damage to her. Only her sharp vision and heightened reflexes as a quarian had saved her life, allowing her to just barely twist out of the way of a lethal hit. In a rage, Shepard drew his SMG and flooded the offending platform with bullets. With over 20 bullets embedded in it, it tipped and fell into the pool.

All his instincts screamed at him to check on his engineer, but training and discipline quickly overrode that voice. He had a squadmate in extreme danger under enemy fire: that was the priority. Drawing his Mattock, he dropped into a crouch and stabilized the rifle against his knee before letting loose on the geth that had Legion pinned down.

His first burst of fire shot up a geth platform that was dangerously close to getting around Legion's cover. Half of the remaining geth directed their attention to Shepard. He dove into cover behind a large equipment crate and continued to fire at the enemy.

The distraction gave Legion the time it needed to poke around the corner of the steel beam it was using as cover and open up on the enemy with its LMG. The Revenant tore into the ranks of the hacked geth, heavy AP shells punching through the thin geth armor as if it was wet tissue paper. Sustained fire for nearly five whole seconds ended up overheating the thermal clip. Legion ejected it and replaced it, but the room had gone quiet. 80 rounds of AP fire had quite thoroughly torn up the enemy geth and left little but sparking scraps.

With the threat ended for now, Shepard quickly rushed back to the fallen quarian. His heart nearly stopped as he saw blood on the ground: he could see the small tears in her suit where streaks of superheated projectiles had ripped through and struck her on her right hip. Dropping his rifle, he reached into his equipment pack and dug for some medi-gel, mindful not to touch her injury, as his soaking wet unsterile armored hand would likely make things worse.

"Tali, can you hear me? Tali!"

She hissed softly and slightly raised a hand. "I-I'm here, Shepard. It just… really hurts," she gasped. Shepard noted that her other hand was remaining shock still: despite how painful her injury was, she had to be exercising an iron will to keep from grabbing her injury with a hand that was still dripping water from the dirty pool.

A splash grabbed Shepard's attention and he turned, expecting more enemies. Instead, a second later Legion had clawed its way up out of the pool onto their platform.

"Shepard-Commander, Creator-Tali'Zorah requires immediate medical attention." Scorch marks adorned its frame: one of its head flaps had been shot off.

"Yeah, thanks, Legion," snarled Shepard, aggravated at being told the obvious. Reaching for the antiseptic that was in Tali's pocket, he cautiously laid it next to the medi-gel pack and tore off his gauntlets, exposing his bare hands. Careful not to let any foreign matter come into contact with his skin, he took the antiseptic and covered his hands in them before taking the medi-gel pack and gently applying it to her wound. She gasped softly in pain as he pressed down to ensure the gel was properly applied; his eyes flicked to hers in a silent apology. With that done, Shepard smeared another layer of antiseptic over Tali's skin as a precaution against further infection. Another gentle gasp came from her as the numbing properties of the gel soon took effect and the worst of the pain was alleviated. She let out a quiet sigh in relief.

"Suit breach must be sealed," announced Legion as Shepard finished his work on her injury.

"Medi-gel could do it but we have to wade back through that pool. I don't think its waterproof and I definitely don't want to take any chances exposing Tali to that water," said Shepard.

"Acknowledged. Alternate solution: geth sealant fluid will suffice."

"What?"

"Geth combat platforms typically carry specialized fluid mixture within to assist in cooling and fluidity of movement. When exposed to room temperature, it is also capable for use in patching minor combat damage as fluid solidifies. Solidified fluid is rated as fully waterproof and will provide an airtight seal. A bladed object would be most efficient in dispensing the appropriate amount necessary for the suit breach."

"It means the fluid they always spray out when they're shot," whispered Tali. "Use my knife."

"Wait. Legion, you're hardly clean yourself. You're still dripping water from that pool."

"We can increase our core temperature and sterilize a significant portion of this platform. For the moment, all that is necessary is sterilizing a hand and knife."

"OK," said Shepard. He drew Tali's knife from her boot holster and handed it to the synthetic. It took the weapon, blade first, and its chest began to glow as its internal power source began to build up heat. Laying its hand against its chest, the water that was on Legion's right hand soon evaporated and dispersed into steam. The synthetic held the blade against the superheated surface, ensuring that the entire thing was dried off. Holding its "forearm" out, it made a quick incision along an exposed cable. A glob of white cooling fluid began to ooze out. Laying the knife down, Legion's hand gathered a palm full of the fluid and it stood still as its sliced arm continued to drip. After a few seconds it began to exceedingly carefully "paint" the suit breach with the fluid.

The job was done shortly. As Shepard and Tali watched, the self-inflicted cut Legion had made stopped dripping as the fluid, exposed to room temperature, solidified, the same thing occurring on Tali's suit breach.

"Like a clot of blood," observed Shepard. "How does it look, Tali?"

"It's… good," she murmured in amazement. "It's airtight and is barely touching my skin. The antiseptic should prevent further infection to me." As Shepard replaced her boot knife and helped her up to a sitting position, she turned to seriously regard her Captain and Legion for a long moment.

"Thank you, Shepard... you too, Legion," she said, the latter a bit more hesitantly.

Its remaining head flaps whirred. "The mission's continued success depends on all members of the ground team operating at peak effectiveness or in a range close to it."

"Most people would just say, 'you're welcome,' you know," grunted Shepard. He got Tali to her feet and let her brace against him. "How do you feel? Can you walk?"

"I don't think so," she said. "I need your help to get through that pool again."

He got into the pool and signaled for her to hop in. As she did so, he made sure to slow her descent enough so he could prop her up against him as they carefully made their way across. The buoyancy in the water made helping her climb out on the other side a great deal easier.

Legion soon joined them back on the side of the entrance door. Tali nodded at Shepard and was able to push herself up to her feet. "Thank you again, Shepard. The seal held, so I'm still dry. I think I can walk on my own now. I'm full of antibiotics at the moment… I'll probably still get sick, but that won't be for another few hours, maybe a half day at the most."

"Still, let's not put you in combat any more than necessary. Legion? What happened? Why'd all those geth activate?"

"Upon releasing station override, we detected that the Cerberus signal jammer deactivated. For unknown reasons, station override was linked to signal jammer. VI infection is present in this wreckage. Enemy strength, extrapolating from Scientist-Archer's data, is estimated at 22 mobile platforms, including a Geth Prime."

"So Prometheus has been unchained from the mountain," growled Shepard. Tali cocked her head and gave him a quizzical stare, the mythological reference lost on her. He waved a hand dismissively. "Never mind, here's how we're doing things. I'm taking point. Legion, you have the rear. Tali, stay behind me and watch our flank. Everybody stay sharp. The enemy could be anywhere."

He heard a pair of acknowledgements as they left the command hub. Retracing their steps through the crashed frigate, Shepard noted the many previously locked doors that had opened and were empty… as well as the many geth "corpses" that were now conspicuously missing.

"And there's the catch," he muttered. They were now back in the entrance room, and from there, the outside world. "I knew this was too easy."

The missing geth platforms were all clustered in the room and on the ramps that led deeper into the frigate. The Geth Prime that had been in stasis was now active and alert, surrounded by plenty of other geth troopers and destroyers. "The VI was herding us," said Tali. "Just like it herded the Cerberus scientists into the command room to slaughter them all."

"Shepard-Commander, we are at an extreme disadvantage. Our fireteam is greatly outnumbered and outgunned. This unit is experiencing no success in calculating an exit strategy."

Tali looked at her captain. "There must be another way!"

He nodded. "I've only got one plan. I didn't want to use this before because there was always a chance one of us could get hurt, but looks like we've got no choice." He unlatched the singularity projector from his back and sighted down. "I want you both to head back into the room and close the door. We'll see if this thing works against them."

"What? Are you crazy! I'm not going to let you fight that group all by yourself!" Tali objected.

"We do not recognize that weapon," said Legion. "Possibility of self-damage is a positive non-zero sum."

"This isn't up for debate," said Shepard. "You're injured, Tali, and Legion, heating yourself up like you did earlier can't have been good for your frame. If you're not going to go into the other room, at the very least, take cover behind the corner." He paused, then sighed. "OK, if you want to help, use your combat drones. That should give me a second or two when they're not shooting at me."

Realizing this was as good as she'd get, Tali reluctantly ducked around the corner, Legion taking up position on the opposite end. Firing the micro-dart that was Chiktikka vas Paus, the mass effect fields that were the drone came to life as Legion did the same. The pair of orbs floated out into the room.

The waiting geth horde opened fire on the drones as Shepard slid behind the railing on the second floor. Raising the Blackstorm, he pulled the trigger and sighted on the Geth Prime.

The weapon took nearly three seconds to charge. The two drones were history within one and a half. A storm of pulse rifle fire and hungry flames from the geth destroyers played havoc on his shields and they shattered. Just as his armor began to take hits, the Blackstorm fired.

A massive ball of dark energy flowed into the center of the room, stopping at the sheer mass of the Geth Prime. The ball began to create a reverse gravitational effect as over a dozen geth troopers and destroyers found themselves flailing helplessly in the air. Shepard watched in stunned fascination as even the Geth Prime struggled to stay on its feet from the artificial black hole.

A second later, he was knocked on his ass as the orb collapsed in on itself, releasing a massive rush of air and sheer kinetic force. The geth that had been caught in its wake were instantly torn apart by the blast wave.

He quickly recovered and brought out his Mattock. "Legion! Tali! Give me supporting fire and let's finish these bastards!"

As it turned out, there wasn't much left to do. The few geth troopers that had survived were in complete disarray from the blast. The Geth Prime fared better, but it was also the first target of the fireteam, and it did not stand for long against the combined barrage from Legion's Widow, Shepard's pinpoint shots from his DMR, and a charged shot from Tali's plasma shotgun. The room was clear within five seconds.

"Let's go!" said Shepard as he draped an arm around Tali's shoulders and helped her limp out of the frigate. Legion was out the door first, doing a sweep with its rifle. At its all-clear, the three of them piled into the Hammerhead.

"Shepard… something's very wrong," said Tali. "Why did the frigate's kinetic barrier disappear?"

As he drove away from the frigate, he had to admit that was a very good point. The answer was not what he expected.

"Shepard-Commander! Enemy VI has infected Type-43's core systems and is diverting all power to weapons! We are being locked on to by the Type-43's mass accelerator cannon!"

"You gotta be kidding me!" bellowed Shepard as he wrenched the hovertank into a desperate strafe. A moment later, the field it had just been on exploded in a cloud of dust and dirt as the mass accelerator cannon – a weapon that had been rated for use against capital ships in space – impacted.

"Shepard-Commander, we cannot outrun the cannon for long," cautioned Legion.

"The weapons on this thing won't put a scratch on that cannon," said Tali. "Its armor is far too thick."

"Singularity projector may be a viable alternative," said Legion as Shepard hit the thrusters on the Hammerhead, avoiding another blast from the frigate as it collapsed part of a cliff wall.

"He can't! I saw how long it took for him to charge up that gun. By the time he gets it charged and fires, he won't be able to run fast enough to escape the cannon's blast radius!" cried Tali.

"You two need to think less narrowly," said Shepard. "Tali, strap in tight. Legion, am I correct in assuming that the power core for the Type-43 is in the rear, similar to where the _Normandy's_ power core is?"

"Correct."

"That's all I needed to hear. Hang on, both of you."

Aside from a frightened "_What?"_ from Tali, there were no further objections. As the frigate's cannon prepared another blast, Shepard slammed the pedal and charged right at the frigate… before engaging the thrusters, sending the Hammerhead flying.

The hovertank landed right on the frigate and continued to accelerate. Parking itself right above the midsection of the wreck, it turned and waited.

The mass accelerator cannon rotated 180 degrees and locked onto the Hammerhead.

Shepard allowed himself a tight grin and gunned the engine, slamming the control for the thrusters.

The cannon fired, tearing right through the frigate's weakened hull and hitting the power core dead-on. The Hammerhead flew right over the cannon, landing back in the valley and immediately roared off in the direction of the mountain pass they had come from. Electricity began to spark from the frigate's wreck as the power core began to vent energy and superheated gases.

The hovertank barely made it to the relative safety of the top of the mountain as the wreckage of the Type-43 detonated, scorching the entire area of the valley and leaving behind a tattered wake of destruction.

As he plotted a course for Atlas Station, Shepard finally allowed himself to lean back and relax. Hell, he allowed himself to actually laugh as the vehicle cruised along.

"An interesting tactic, Shepard-Commander. Perhaps you are correct when you stated that we must expand our thinking," mused the synthetic.

"Keelah, Shepard! That was… that was… are you insane? Wait no, don't answer that: I know you're going to say yes! Never mind, I don't even know why I'm pointing out the obvious… or well, maybe it wasn't so insane after all… or, or… what am I even talking about?" Tali's excited babbling quickly trailed off as she shook her head and a peal of laughter erupted from her as well.

Shepard looked back at his prize and grinned. "Wrex used to say something like that, right? 'Sometimes insane is the only way to go.' Now there was a wise man if I had ever met one, that krogan."

* * *

><p><em>Next chapter: Weight of Atlas<em>


	4. Weight of Atlas

**Chapter 4: Weight of Atlas**

Gavin Archer looked up briefly as the screen monitoring the overrides at Atlas Station beeped and showed that the final override at Prometheus Station was disengaged: Shepard and his team had succeeded. But he was not concerned with that at all, since his blood had turned to ice water.

He looked over the encrypted emails again. And again. And again.

With no other way to help Shepard, Archer had taken to gathering all the intact omni-tools and OSDs he could find around Hermes Station for analysis. As Hermes was the command center of the Cerberus facility on Aite, all reports regarding Overlord had to go through one of the three project directors on-station. With him being the only one still alive, it was simple enough to override all security protocols on the data storage devices.

Initially, he had only been looking to see if perhaps somebody had come up with something, anything, to help stop the VI outbreak, or even better methods to defeat the geth. What he had found was far more shocking.

There was no denying it: one of his own staff members had been a Shadow Broker agent.

It was a classic case of the typical double agent: feeling underappreciated and underpaid, the agent had decided to reach out and try to make a tidy profit on what Cerberus was doing. Theoretically, all out-going communications to and from the facility on Aite were tightly monitored: in practice, they were simply too shorthanded to have somebody poring over thousands of gigabytes of data per day. The budget the Illusive Man had allocated to Project Overlord had suddenly dried up a few months after the facility had been established, and reallocated to what Archer now knew as the Lazarus Project.

Obviously, that had been a success. But it had turned out in disaster for Overlord.

The security staff on-station was meant to deal with out of control geth: they were former military men and mercenaries, not programmers or information security auditors. And all it had taken was one email that managed to slip the net and made its way out into the Terminus Systems.

_To: [NAME REDACTED]_

_From: Shadow Broker_

_Good day._

_I hope this message finds you well. I am immensely interested in the potential applications of your project and am extremely willing to negotiate a fair price for it. This message has a self-executing file attached to it; please install it before you make a reply, as it will scramble your message and render it untraceable to the security at your facility. I look forward to hearing back from you._

_P.S. As a token of my goodwill, and to set your mind at ease that I am indeed the Shadow Broker, [NAME REDACTED], your bank account has just received an advance payment of 25,000 credits courtesy of Barla Von. Should this arrangement prove amicable to the both of us, you can expect to see additional deposits on a regular basis._

In a way, it was quite fortuitous that the VI outbreak had occurred when it did three days ago: the Cerberus mole had been preparing to send a massive burst of intelligence to the Shadow Broker on top of what had already been transmitted. By Archer's estimate, the Shadow Broker already possessed roughly a third of all the raw data they had acquired from his brother's interactions with the geth… any more than that and the Broker would likely have been able to start up his own project and work on obtaining his own synthetic army.

Fortunately, with Archer now being the sole survivor of the disaster, there was no way even the Shadow Broker would know of what had befallen Project Overlord. By the Broker's own assumptions, the mole was only a single day overdue on their regular communications: that could be attributed to anything, whether it be equipment failure, job rotation, or simple extranet buoy bad luck.

Archer closed the emails and brought up another list on his own private terminal. The Cerberus mole had actually managed to disclose to the Shadow Broker the locations of six data packets that were kept in secure locations around Aite that pertained to Overlord. The moment that the Broker realized that his mole was no longer in contact, he would be sure to send in agents to recover the data.

The data packets were being kept by order of the Illusive Man for precisely this kind of contingency: should a disaster befall Project Overlord, it was preferable to have some data stored outside of the main facilities for recovery teams to study. The worst-case scenario they had been preparing for would be if a random geth patrol managed to detect the facility and its experiments and then proceeded to bomb the entire area into dust. Of course, nobody had expected a contagious AI to suddenly kill everything.

Archer himself, however, was savvy enough to know that if the time ever came when Cerberus would be looking to recover those half dozen data packages, that meant he was of no more use to the Illusive Man. A month ago, he had prepared a small contingency of his own: he had personally hidden five more data caches off-station, completely off the books, on the other side of Aite near a human settlement that was none the wiser while he had gone on a routine supply run. And Archer was the only one who knew where those could be found. If he could survive this disaster, and find passage off-world…

But no. That was a situation that might not even come to fruition. For now, with Atlas Station wide open, he had to get there ahead of Shepard. Making final preparations at Hermes, he gathered all the omni-tools, OSDs, and other data terminals and dumped them in a pile near his desk. Retrieving a flamethrower that had been stored in the security office, he hit the trigger and burned all the incriminating data.

The flamethrower roared for almost fifteen seconds until the fuel ran dry. Throwing aside the weapon and rushing out the door before he inhaled too much smoke, he made his way to the motor pool, where there would likely be a utility vehicle still available for use.

Gavin Archer loved his brother. And he would make sure Shepard would not hurt him.

* * *

><p>Once again the Hammerhead was cruising through the mountains of Aite on its way to Atlas Station. Unlike the previous treks to Vulcan and Prometheus, the interior was abuzz with conversation.<p>

"Are you sure you're going to be okay?" asked Shepard, glancing briefly at Tali before returning his attention to driving.

Tali yelped briefly as she carefully probed her injury. "The numbness has worn off by now. It's painful, but I don't think it'll really get much worse than what it already is. I can walk just fine, maybe even do a short sprint, but I'm not going to be doing any long-distance running anytime soon. Actually, it was probably a good thing I was hit by that particular weapon, you know. The rounds were superheated and only grazed me, so they won't aggravate my infection. It's like being shot with a sterile gun." She let out an awkward laugh at that. "It just burns, though."

"Small blessing," grunted Shepard.

The Hammerhead stopped in front of a pool of water being supplied by a waterfall from higher up on the mountain. Shepard frowned and looked at the radar display again. "Is this right? It says the station is directly ahead of us but all I see is a waterfall. Did we miss another path somewhere?"

"Analysis of terrain indicates that waterfall is clear. Atlas Station is found within." To emphasize its point, Legion calmly waved a hand at said waterfall.

"All right, let's gun it," said Shepard as he barreled the Hammerhead forward.

The hovertank broke the waterfall and came into a plain just beyond. The first thing that they noticed was the Colossus and a platoon of geth troopers standing guard over a large metal door built into the side of the mountain.

Shepard reacted, sending the Hammerhead into a strafing motion while hitting the firing stud at the same time. The Colossus's siege cannon blast narrowly missed as the Hammerhead's HEMMs impacted amongst the synthetic fighters, sending bodies flying.

Shepard punched the thrusters on the ML-44 and landed directly on the Colossus, hitting the retrorockets as it descended. The exhaust from the thrusters began to melt away the outer layer of the Colossus's armor until the walker suddenly collapsed itself and withdrew its extremities within as it activated its repair mode. The Hammerhead bounced off the walking tank and flew to the side.

Alarms began blaring in the hovertank as a rocket hit the vehicle and sent it rocking. Shepard moved to stabilize and sent a barrage of HEMMs right back into the face of the geth rocket trooper that had fired at them.

Within minutes the scattered geth troopers had been cleared out thanks to the Hammerhead's cannon. Without any warning, Shepard threw open the vehicle's hatch and jumped out.

"What are you doing?" cried Tali.

"Legion, with me. Tali, keep hitting that Colossus with the cannon. We need to finish this fast or it'll keep repairing itself."

Without a word, the geth followed and shouldered its Widow. At the same time, the Colossus stood back up as its repairs finished. Legion put a round from the AMR right into the walker's head. It took the blow and was preparing to fire back until Tali fired a burst of HEMMs at the walker, throwing it off-balance.

_Then_ Shepard fired the singularity that had been charging in the Blackstorm.

The dark energy wave stopped upon striking the center mass of the Colossus as it began to peel back armor plating from the synthetic platform. Bringing up his Mattock, he put round after round into the machine's head as Legion and Tali did the same thing. The dark energy wave collapsed and let out a pressure burst that left a gaping hole in its side. Before it could attempt another repair session, a series of HEMMs from the Hammerhead struck the Colossus there and blew it apart.

Tali brought the Hammerhead over to Shepard and Legion and threw open the hatch. As Shepard settled himself back into the pilot's seat she had vacated, he heard a quiet murmur from her.

"That was for Haestrom."

* * *

><p>The Hammerhead descended slowly down the shaft behind the immense door that led to Atlas Station. It was quickly apparent to Shepard that this was not the main entrance into the station, but was rather a freight route that led to a landing pad meant for quick supply drops. He'd served at a base on Mars that had a similar layout, further reinforcing Archer's words that Atlas Station had been a former Alliance command center.<p>

_A lifetime ago_, he thought.

Disbelief and shock poured into him at the thought: In Shepard's case, it literally _had _been a lifetime ago since he'd been an N7 marine. He violently shook his head to clear those thoughts: this was no time to dwell on the philosophical or religious significance of literally being a resurrected man. Tali noted his actions and almost moved as if to speak up, but changed her mind and remained quiet.

The Hammerhead settled down on the landing pad with a soft _thud_ as the engines shut down. The three occupants briskly stepped out of the vehicle and made their way along the wide bridge that led to the interior of the facility.

"_Commander Shepard, are you reading me? This is Dr. Archer, I'm getting some troubling readings from Atlas Station."_

Shepard raised a hand to halt his companions and toggled the communicator. "I read you, Doctor. What's going on?"

"_I – yes, there is something strange happening at Atlas Station. There is a GARDIAN defense tower mounted near the top of the mountain that the station is built into that is now moving. I'm looking at it right now with a pair of binoculars, there are several geth troopers that are apparently making modifications to the tower."_

Shepard frowned. "What are they up to?"

"_This is largely a guess, but I believe they may be attempting to modify the tower to act not as a weapon, but as a transmission vector. If the beam can focus enough, the range will enable it to reach out into space. The VI will then be able to use the laser to transmit itself out to one of the satellites in orbit and escape… I suggest you hurry, Commander."_

"Damn. Come on, let's move." He cut the transmitter and drew his SMG before raising a hand and signaling to Tali and Legion to follow him into the complex.

The first room they passed was clearly a reception area where the supplies and/or personnel dropped off at the pad would be checked in. The receptionist behind the desk was slumped back against his seat, a bullet in his forehead. Two other men lay dead against the windows to the landing pad, security personnel apparently. Farther down the hall a small team of geth lay still, riddled with gunfire.

Shepard grabbed a map of the building from a plaque on the wall and looked it over. "The core mainframe is on the bottom level. There's an elevator a few rooms down."

They found themselves before the elevator a short time later. Shepard slapped the call button and waited.

The blare of an alarm caught everyone's attention a second afterward. The elevator was above the weight limit, but the safeties had apparently been disengaged and it was still rising. Shepard waved his team to defensive positions throughout the room. The alarm cut off as the elevator platform finally reached the top, but the doors did not open. The outline of a cutting laser made itself known as whatever was inside the elevator began to force open the doors.

The instant the doors were open, Shepard hurled an overload mine into the compartment as Tali and Legion unloaded with their weapons. Before the blue flash of the overload had even had time to dissipate, Shepard was halfway through the clip on his SMG as he took up position between Tali and Legion.

The Geth Prime that had been cutting open the door slumped to the ground before it could fire off a single bullet. The four troopers and the cloaked hunter in the elevator found themselves easy prey for the fireteam as they attempted to exit the elevator, each one being cut down by an AMR round or a charged plasma shotgun burst.

As soon as the last geth dropped, Shepard moved into the elevator and dragged the bodies out, the geth limbs clanking unceremoniously on the grated flooring. Tali and Legion were quick to follow as he stowed his weapon and toggled the call button for the bottom floor.

As the elevator began to descend, the vidscreen at the rear of the elevator (which had somehow miraculously escaped serious damage from the gunfight) suddenly lit up… and an all-too familiar screech filled the air.

_Is it just my imagination, or did that screech actually sound like something comprehensible? _Before Shepard could pursue that train of thought, the elevator suddenly stopped and began to sway up and down in a rocking motion.

"Keelah!" cried Tali as she lost her footing.

"Get down on the ground!" roared Shepard. "Spread your limbs and hold the gaps in the grate to anchor yourself!" Taking his own advice, he dropped spread-eagled as Tali did so, while Legion opted to crouch and simply hold the grating by brute force. For some reason, it looked… focused?

The VI continued to screech as the elevator suddenly ascended, then descended again before coming to a sudden stop. Shepard's heart felt like it was in his throat: he could only imagine what Tali was going through. Before either of them could properly recover, the elevator suddenly dropped like a boulder down the elevator shaft.

Tali let out a panicked scream, and even he couldn't stifle a shout of surprise as the platform continued to fall. All of a sudden, the platform stopped; the sudden brake bruised his chest as he slammed against his armor.

Legion looked at the two of them. "We have temporarily locked the enemy VI out of the elevator controls. Recommend exit immediately."

With a groan, Shepard tried to ignore his aching chest as he stood up. Tali was there first, grabbing his arm and draping it across her shoulders as she half-dragged, half-supported his stumble out of the hellish elevator. Legion was already out, its AMR extended and sweeping the room the elevator had stopped on for any trouble.

Only a few seconds after all three of them had made it out, the VI let out another roar and the elevator plummeted. The crash of metal echoed up the entire shaft a moment later.

"Good God… that was a close one," wheezed Shepard as he gingerly removed his arm from around Tali and stumbled to a nearby desk to catch his breath.

"Shepard-Commander. We have also performed a basic analysis of the VI's aural patterns. The distortion is becoming less severe and we believe we have discovered a message in it based off of geth communication patterns. It is saying, 'make it stop,'" said Legion.

"Make it stop?" muttered Shepard. "Make _what_ stop?"

"Look around this room," interrupted Tali.

He did so. The room had a handful of geth troopers carefully arranged against the wall. Several were hooked up to a machine in the center of the area. "Archer said this was where they conducted the experiments on the geth."

"These platforms are devoid of geth runtimes," said Legion. "They are unlike the Prometheus Station units, which were in stasis. It is impossible to activate them."

"But that chair there," pointed out Tali. "It's connected to the machine, but it's not designed for a geth. Only one of the human staff members would sit there. Why would Cerberus build something like that?"

A gnawing feeling was building in Shepard's stomach. "I don't know, but we need to move on. The map I grabbed off the wall indicates we're actually not too far from the core mainframe. Let's move out, but be careful: based off of Archer's numbers and the geth we've destroyed ourselves and seen dead here, it looks like we've still got almost two dozen geth to worry about."

As Legion had forcibly stopped the elevator early, the team had to descend another floor to make it to the mainframe. Strangely, they encountered no geth on the way. A T-junction lay before them, three doors to choose from. Remembering the map, Shepard entered the door on the left.

The core mainframe lay in front of them. Behind it, a safety railing blocked off a long, long hallway that led deeper into the complex, possibly to the power reactor for the facility. Shepard approached the mainframe and gingerly powered it on before bringing up a command line interface. Taking the OSD Archer had given him, he inserted it into the appropriate reader on the console.

Human, quarian, and geth all watched as a string of code flowed across the screen. Shepard let out a slight chuckle as it scrolled by. He was no computer scientist, which was why it was so helpful to have the best quarian engineer in the galaxy at his side and over a thousand geth runtimes as well. "You two probably get this a lot better than I do."

"Not exactly, Shepard," Tali said slowly. "I've been writing code since I was a child and this looks… strange."

"We concur with Creator-Tali'Zorah," said Legion. "This code is not meant for a conventional computer program."

"What."

"Remember that a human mind is involved," said Tali. "As a matter of fact… that last string there. I can understand it, it's in binary… 'Square root of 912.04 is 30.2?' What does that have to do with coding?" She waved her arms in frustration. Before Shepard could come up with a reply, the screen flashed with a final command line in simple, plain language.

**Abort program? Y/N**

His hand hovered over the haptic adaptive interface, the holographic keyboard that was replacing its plastic physical predecessor. He looked Tali in the eyes. "Get ready for anything. I wouldn't be surprised if this button summons a Reaper."

She crossed her arms and cocked her head as she matched his gaze. "Shepard. Please do not even joke about things like that."

He pressed the Y key.

In theory, HAIs could be used by anybody, but in practice, the vast majority of keyboards in the galaxy were still physical devices. HAIs required the use of gloves with motion accelerometers to be able to correspond with the user's hand movements, unless one were to go bareskin through the use of cybernetic implants. Said implants would be accelerometers surgically inserted within the fingertips of the user, and would key in with the computer to produce a "mirror" that would correspond with the locations of the holographic keys. In short: "going bareskin" to type would require the individual to set up a wireless connection with the HAI.

A connection that Shepard's implants created as they automatically keyed into the mainframe.

The first time the VI had interfaced with Shepard at Hermes Station, the effort had been fragmented, unfocused. Now, it was directing a significantly more powerful command at the man, having detected the threat to its existence.

Shepard turned and stumbled. Tali instinctively jumped back. "Shepard? What's wrong?"

For the briefest of moments, his eyes met hers. The quarian choked back a gasp as she saw what had happened: the slightest traces of green code were glowing out of his eyes and various other cybernetics in his body.

Within moments, the VI had complete control of nearly 75% of Shepard's bodily functions. He turned and began to stumble his way out of the room.

"Shepard!" shrieked Tali as he suddenly left the room.

"Alert! Enemies everywhere!" squawked Legion as a rocket suddenly hit the control console, blowing it to pieces. The geth returned fire with its AMR as multiple possessed geth platforms began approaching their position from the tunnel that led deeper into the complex.

"Creator-Tali'Zorah, requesting assistance," said the geth as it ducked behind the blown apart console, ejecting its spent heat sink. "Creator!"

* * *

><p>Tali was futilely trying to open the door back out into the hallway where Shepard had disappeared, to no avail as it had suddenly locked itself and powered down. Her fists pounded weakly on the barrier as she called his name again.<p>

"Warning! Heavy armor detected! Creator-Tali'Zorah, we cannot defeat this threat alone! We require assistance!" it called in vain.

_He's been hacked_. The thought repeated itself in her head over and over again. The signs were identical to what had happened to him at Hermes Station.

_Why was I so stupid? I should've realized that's what was happening! His implants interface with computers to use a haptic interface! Tali'Zorah you stupid bosh'tet! You should have been the one to use the computer!_

Dimly she could hear gunfire and explosions. Legion was doing something.

_Legion… all this time, I was worried about it being hacked, and yet it was Shep – _John_ – who got hacked like that._ She would have laughed at the irony if it didn't feel like her world was slowly collapsing.

Of all the damn places in the universe: trapped in a virtual nightmare with only a geth for company. Losing her captain to a method that she had long utilized herself against the synthetic bastards that had ruined her life. She slumped to her knees, worry clawing at her heart. She couldn't lose him again. The first time, she had collapsed into an empty shell for nearly two years, her life continuing on simple autopilot. If it happened a second time…

"Alert!" screeched Legion.

Tali's reverie was broken as an explosive detonated a few feet from her. She looked up in shock to see that Legion had taken a glancing blow from a rocket meant for her; the N7 armor plate on its arm was charred and blackened.

Combat instincts kicked in as she grabbed Legion and dove behind the busted console. "Legion, what the hell is going on?"

The synthetic stowed its AMR and brought out the Revenant LMG. "There are approximately fifteen enemy signals down the tunnel, a mixture of rocket drones, geth troopers, and a Geth Prime. The only exit from this room is to proceed further down. Our former entrance is shut down and cannot be reactivated."

She nodded and sent Chiktikka vas Paus to hit the approaching synthetic enemies. Cycling a shot into her shotgun, a technique she'd learned from Wrex during the hunt for Saren, she charged up her plasma shotgun and sent a massive blast down toward a group of geth.

Legion, taking advantage of the reprieve, sent out its own combat drone and sighted directly on the enemy Geth Prime. Distracted by the drone, the synthetic hit the trigger on the LMG and sent burst after burst of AP fire at the 12-foot tall behemoth. Its shields collapsed and its armor peeled off in multiple segments.

Tali attempted to establish a direct connection with the Prime and succeeded: a second later, she had overwritten its programming and directed it to destroy all the rocket drones around it. Within moments, the remaining drones and enemy geth had fallen to the giant Prime. As the Prime began to reboot itself, Legion put in a burst of fire into its head and put it down for good.

"Legion, where did these geth come from?"

"These geth units came from the outside. It appears that they have succeeded in modifying the GARDIAN laser tower into a broadcast method for the VI. It will attempt to upload itself off-world soon."

"What about Shepard?" she asked as they began to walk down the tunnel.

"The VI has successfully hacked him. Connection must be severed. For a synthetic, this would be done by system reboot. However, Shepard-Commander is organic. This is not an option for him. We must destroy the VI to neutralize its influence and also prevent its escape." It paused as a series of whirs and buzzes emanated. "Reviewing map data… there is a chamber a short distance away that may be where the VI's true core is. A cooling vent links to it from deeper down this tunnel."

* * *

><p>His head was pounding. Every breath was a struggle. At times, it even felt like he had to force his heart to keep beating.<p>

The world was green. A layer of code was overlaid over everything he could see. He stumbled down the hall, trying to keep his balance. Was this what it was like to see the world as a machine?

He soon found himself in another lab. Unlike the previous one, there was an image in the corner. It was familiar: it was the machine he'd seen in the previous lab, only this one had a sort of film grain effect to it.

One of the men in the image he recognized: Gavin Archer. Another scientist was next to him, and a much younger man was in the chair hooked up to the center machine, which in turn had a geth hooked up to it.

"_Now David, I want you to tell me what the geth is saying," coaxed Archer._

_A buzz came from the geth._

"_It's wondering where it is. How it got here," answered the younger man._

"_Remarkable!" said the other scientist._

"_But of course," answered Archer smugly. "David is a high-level autistic savant. It's because he is a mathematical genius that he can instantly decode and decipher the geth machine language at a speed even the most powerful supercomputers we possess cannot do. David is a true once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You will never find another savant like him in the entire galaxy."_

The image faded and was replaced with another, largely the same.

"_All right, David. Do you remember what happened last week? Let's try something different. This time, I want you to tell the geth to start walking."_

_The younger man narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth. No sounds came out, but whatever he did must have affected the geth, for it started moving its legs._

"_This is it..." murmured the elder Archer. "This is the breakthrough I need."_

Shepard stumbled across the room. What did all this mean? He had somehow accessed the VI's memories… there must be something important here. He toggled his local comm. "Tali, Legion, come in. Are you seeing this? Archer? Do you read me?"

No answer.

The scene changed again. This time, it was only Gavin and David sitting at a table.

"_David… I need to tell you something."_

_The younger man didn't answer, simply continued to count his fingers._

"_David… my career is in jeopardy. The funding for this place is going to dry up soon and I will be out of a job unless I do something drastic. Do you remember the new machine I set up in the old gym? It's like the one we've been hooking you up to in the lab, but more powerful. I need you to sit in that one. I need you to do to all the geth what you did a few days ago."_

"_I don't like the machine. It's cold. It's noisy talking to geth. Don't want to."_

"_David, please. This will be good for you. All you do is play with numbers anyway. I think you'll enjoy this. Many men would love to be in your position: they can do what they love for a living! Please, David. I need you to do this for me. Don't you remember what happened on Eden Prime back then? So many people died because of the geth! Don't you want to prevent that from happening again?"_

"_Don't want to. It's so noisy. They're never quiet. I like quiet."_

"_David, I love you. I'm your brother. I won't let this hurt you."_

The image faded.

Shepard still felt like hell, though. He barged through an open door into another geth testing area. Unlike the previous lab, the geth here had gone active, but in the green world of code he was trapped in, they moved… differently, more gracefully somehow… as if they were in their native environment.

He drew his SMG and poured fire into the closest geth. He saw the body collapse, but the layer of code suddenly exploded and vanished into nothingness.

He cleared the rest of the room and moved on. This was seeing the world through the eyes of a virtual intelligence?

Shepard came to a long circular corridor that overlooked a large chamber. Seemingly floating in the air was a much larger visual representation of the VI's face, watching every step he took.

Carefully making his way along and disposing of any geth he came across, Shepard soon made it to a small anteroom. A row of lockers indicated this was a storage room for a gymnasium nearby, while a small kitchen in the corner lent credence to that idea as a place where bodybuilders would be able to prepare nutrient-rich meals after workouts. Behind the room was a door that presumably led to the more habitable areas of the facility; probably the Officers' Club back when Atlas Station had been an Alliance base, and the standard entrance in. A table in the center displayed a large holographic representation.

He did a double-take at the image on display: it was the _Normandy_.

"What the…" he muttered as he stepped closer.

The image pulled back, showing Atlas Station's location as a dotted line made its way to the _Normandy_. Shepard recalled Archer's words with horror.

_The GARDIAN tower… it's targeting the _Normandy_! The VI is trying to hijack my ship!_

He quickly looked around. The large chamber the circular corridor surrounded would have been a gymnasium where Alliance soldiers sparred and kept themselves in shape as well as held impromptu sporting matches. It had been completely cleared out by either the geth or Cerberus, but there was a large machine in the center… right below the VI's image.

Realizing that that must be the core, Shepard slapped the button for the elevator down to the former gym. Like before, the door let out an elevator weight warning and a laser began to cut through.

"I don't have time for this!" he snapped, unslinging his Mattock. The door burst open as a Geth Prime and a pair of troopers rose up off of the platform.

Not wasting any time, Shepard rushed right up to the trio and grabbed a trooper by the wrist. Forcibly turning its gun on the other, Shepard depressed the firing stud and filled the other trooper with pulse blasts. As soon as it was done, he picked up the trooper and slammed it against the Prime. At this close range, its kinetic barriers were useless and the force of the swing knocked it to the ground.

Shoving his Mattock into its face, Shepard unloaded the entire clip right into its central processor. Another few bullets took care of the remaining trooper and he hit the control to descend.

The elevator opened into the former gymnasium as another image showed itself.

_David Archer, entombed within the machine in the center of the room as his brother and a handful of other Cerberus scientists stood in front, monitoring several devices. A frightened litany of number and mathematical formulae spilled from him as his eyes darted around the room, looking frantically in every direction._

"_We're ready," said the elder Archer. "Connect David to the geth network and merge the VI with him." The scientist next to him nodded and did as ordered._

_All the geth in the room suddenly approached the scientists, weapons drawn._

"_QUIET PLEASE! MAKE IT STOP!" screamed David._

"_David! Stop this! Tell the geth to stand down!" cried Archer._

The images disappeared… and the room made itself known to Shepard once again. In his cyber world, he could see four wireless connections that existed between the central sphere – the VI – and the cabling that led to the GARDIAN tower. And each connection had a packet of data that was being uploaded…

"Node acquired. _Normandy SR-2_ within range. Attempting to establish upload link," said the PA system.

Hell with that. There was no way he was going to let this mad VI take his ship. Not having a clue if this was going to work, he drew his Mattock and blasted at the wireless connection.

His bullets actually seemed to scatter the data packet; keeping up the pressure, he emptied the clip and watched as the first connection was disrupted to the point of severing. Shouldering his rifle he moved to blast the other connections, but one made it through.

* * *

><p>"Alert: I have been compromised by the electronic intelligence on the planetary surface," said EDI.<p>

"What?" snapped Garrus. "How? I thought you'd cut off communications with the surface!"

"There is a GARDIAN laser that has been reconfigured to serve as a tight-beam communications array. It is painting me as a target for a massive data burst. The foreign program is already within my systems. I have lost control of engineering and cannot move the ship to get out of transmission range."

"Of all the times for our tech experts to be off the ship," said Miranda.

"Not all of them." Garrus took off running past the CIC to the elevator. He hit the communicator on his visor. "Kasumi? Kasumi, come in!"

"I heard, G-man," came the thief's chipper voice from right behind him as she decloaked.

"Damn, stop doing that! C'mon, we have to get to engineering and get EDI back into the systems."

* * *

><p>"<em>DAVID! You have to stop this!"<em>

_Inside the former gym was nothing but a bloodbath. All the Cerberus scientists had been gunned down by the geth under the VI's control. Archer had somehow escaped and made it up the elevator, pleading with his brother._

"_David, please! The geth are going to kill everyone! You have to tell them to stop!"_

_The response was chilling. More machine than man._

"_David doesn't need to be here."_

_Archer grabbed his com and screamed into it. "This is Primary Project Director Gavin Archer to all stations. I am issuing an all-purpose emergency shutdown order for Project Overlord. Vulcan Station, come in! Deactivate all power plants now! Hermes Station, report! Shut down all off-site communications! Prometheus Station, get the signal jammer online now!"_

The images vanished as the VI attempted to reestablish a wireless connection with the _Normandy_. A massive black ball appeared over the central core as Shepard put round after round into the abomination. But none of his shots were having any kind of effect. He angrily threw aside his Mattock just as he realized what the ball resembled.

Pulling his Blackstorm out one last time, he charged up the final shot remaining in the weapon and fired before diving out of the blast radius.

The artificial singularity made contact with the black ball and began to release its disruptive energy upon the VI core. Just as the singularity was about to explode, Shepard heard a series of gunshots… under him? A vent a few paces away suddenly popped off and Legion poked its head up.

Before he could say anything, the singularity exploded and sent a rush of air at him. The Spectre was knocked on his ass as Legion and Tali pulled themselves out of the vent and helped him up.

"Analysis. The VI's signal has stopped transmitting. All hacked geth and other machines have been deactivated. This also includes the VI influence over Shepard-Commander. This platform will now reactivate wireless communications."

"Shepard! Are you OK? What was that?" asked Tali as she pulled him to his feet. "Do you feel all right?"

"I'm fine, Tali," he said as he gently brushed her off. Indeed, he wasn't feeling any more sluggishness or pounding headaches, and the world had returned to normal instead of the strange green glow that had permeated everything. He looked toward the center of the room, where the VI core was…

In the images he had seen, he hadn't been able to get a clear look at David. Now he wished he hadn't.

The young man naked, suspended upright in midair with nearly a dozen cables tapping into his arms and nervous system. His eyes were kept forced open, fluid on them that was certainly not tears. A pair of feeding tubes extended down his throat, keeping him from dying, forced into this living hell for as long as his captors deemed it necessary.

Next to him, as they followed his gaze, Tali let out a choked gasp. Legion seemed agitated, its head flaps whirring madly as it took in the situation.

He had no idea what to do until the silence was broken by the elevator into the room being lowered and a very unwelcome voice spoke up.

"Commander, please. I know what this looks like, but-"

Shepard didn't even turn around as he answered. "He volunteered, you said. Does this _fucking _look like volunteering to you!"

"I've read your files. I know how many Cerberus operations you've taken apart. If I had told you the truth, you probably would have shot me dead at Hermes Station," said Archer.

"It's a damn shame we didn't," hissed Tali in a low, dangerous voice, her hand twitching for the pistol at her side.

"I never wanted things to turn out like this!" protested Archer. "David was never even a part of this project in the first place. He's my only family left. He told me he wanted to visit me one day, so I made arrangements with the institution he lives in to let him go for a short time. We stumbled upon his ability to communicate with the geth by pure accident! I _never_ meant for things to go this far!"

"I saw his memories!" roared Shepard. "You sat him down and told him point-blank he had to do this. He said no. You didn't listen to him. You were more concerned with your goddamn job than your brother's life!"

"It wasn't just my job! The Illusive Man does not broker failure! This entire facility was already on the verge of being shut down mere weeks ago! With all the knowledge I have of Cerberus's operations in the Terminus, if that happened, I'd be of no more use to him! If I'm not around, nobody would be left to take care of David!"

"So you decided to take care of your brother by using him as a lab rat for your own private hell. Just who gave you the right to play God?" sneered Shepard.

Archer's demeanor changed from desperate to defiant. "People who don't have the stomach to do what is necessary. When people start praying for a miracle, it is up not to God, but to men like me to make the hard decisions: to _make_ those miracles happen. That is why I was chosen for this project: because I knew I wouldn't choke on the tough choices." Shepard's eyes narrowed at that: those were precisely the same words the Illusive Man had said to him after destroying the Collector base.

Archer started pacing the room, waving his arms as he continued to speak. "My duty was to prevent a war with the geth. You know all too well how bloody an organic-synthetic war would be. If my work can prevent a million mothers from mourning a million sons, then this is an acceptable trade-off. Besides," he gestured. "The damage may not be permanent. David may yet regain some semblance of his mind. This was a meaningful way for David to contribute to society. He can barely function on his own. His life would turn out to mean nothing. At least this way, he could have a purpose in life."

Shepard was about to speak up, but Tali beat him to it. "Yes, I _do_ know how destructive a war with the geth would be. My people know that all too well! But your project was doomed to failure from the start! You couldn't even maintain control of less than a hundred geth with your methods. Look at all the people who died here, all the people who could have died if your VI escaped off-world! How many is that?"

Archer turned and was quiet for a moment. "More souls than will ever forgive me. We reached for the sun... and we were burned like the wings of Icarus. But, this project was not a total loss. You're wrong about one count. We've proven that the geth _can_ be controlled. Yes, the method is dangerous and has many risks… but when the time comes when the machine war comes upon us, this may very well be the key to victory. For that, I will _not_ apologize for radical ideas."

The conversation was interrupted with the noise of a rifle extending. "We have enough data to form a consensus," said Legion as it hefted the Widow. "This is a serious threat to our people. We cannot allow this threat to continue to exist."

It pointed the rifle at David.

"Stand down, Legion!"

The Spectre interposed himself in the way of the geth's shot. Tali drew her handgun and flicked on the Phalanx's laser sight, drawing a bead on Legion's head.

"Legion! Put the weapon down or I swear by the ancestors I _will_ finish what I started in the AI Core!" she growled.

The synthetic didn't react to the threat. "Shepard-Commander, you are blocking our shot."

"I said to stand down!" he repeated. "You are not going to hurt David. He's been through enough hell."

"We have a responsibility to protect our people. This is a real and proven threat to all geth. This cannot be allowed to continue."

Shepard blew out a breath and looked to Tali. "Tali, keep an eye on Archer. Let me handle this." She looked as if she was about to protest, but after a moment of internal debate, nodded curtly and instead turned her gun on Archer.

"The threat is over, Legion," said Shepard calmly. "This project is shut down. David won't be a threat to the geth anymore. So put the weapon away."

"The threat is not over," countered the synthetic. "There is a positive non-zero probability that VI-Archer's abilities will be able to be utilized against the geth, if not by Cerberus, then by another organization that is hostile to our continued existence. We must end the threat permanently now."

"No, you don't," said Shepard. "You're acting on paranoia. You're so convinced that all organic life in the galaxy is going to try to kill you at the first opportunity that you've created a self-fulfilling prophecy. You may have been justified at the very beginning of your sapience, but you're keeping the paranoia going strong because that's all you know. The quarians attempted genocide against you. And you responded with a successful genocide of your own. But ever since then, you've destroyed every organic that tried to peacefully contact you."

He stepped forward and placed a hand on the muzzle of the Widow, pushing downward. "And now you're doing the exact same thing that causes the galaxy to hate and fear the geth. David _could_ be a threat in the future. But it's no guarantee that he _will_ be. So you can take the shot, and let the geth continue down the path of destructive isolationism that you've been on for the past 300 years, or you can stand down, and for once try to experience what co-existence is."

He stepped aside. "Look around you, Legion. I've had plenty of opportunities to destroy you. Tali has. Hell, the whole crew of the _Normandy_ has. We haven't, not even the ones who distrust you, like Jacob." His eyes moved past Legion. "Archer thinks a war with the geth is inevitable. Is it, really? You've told me more than once the geth don't wish to harm organics. Do you really want to continue this state of existence: perpetual fear that both sides will destroy each other?"

Legion turned to stare at Gavin Archer. After a long moment, it spoke up, "This is a new conclusion. We will take time to consider Shepard-Commander's words." And with that, the Widow returned to its place on Legion's back.

Inwardly, Shepard and Tali both let out a sigh of relief, Archer as well. "Thank you Commander. I'm glad this situation has been defused. I know what I have done to David is unethical. But if I let him die, it is unforgivable. Let me take care of him. Please. He's my only family left. I love him."

"You love him?" asked Tali in disbelief. "This is how you treat your family? You're sick, you are absolutely disgusting!"

Shepard regarded Archer in a similar fashion. "I'd have to be insane to let you keep him after what I've seen you do. David's coming with me."

It happened so fast that Tali, who had lowered her pistol, didn't see it coming.

"NO! Leave him, he's too valuable!" And with that, Archer whipped out the Predator pistol at his side and squeezed off a shot at Shepard.

The former N7 marine grunted as the shot struck and grazed his shoulder. Before Archer could fire off another shot, Tali grabbed his arm and wrenched it upwards before balling her other hand into a fist and striking him in the face. Hooking one of her legs behind his, she forced him to the ground and slammed his head against the surface.

"You no-good son of a bitch," snarled Shepard as he pointed his SMG at Archer and pulled the trigger.

Shepard's shot went wide as it struck the ceiling. Tali had gripped his arm with hers and forced it upwards. She met his eyes and shook her head before nudging it toward the center of the room, where David Archer was watching the entire scene unfold before him with frightened eyes. "Quiet please… make it stop."

Shepard followed her gaze and let out a heavy sigh. He nodded once at her and pulled her arm off of his before turning back to Archer. Legion was standing over him, its LMG ready to fire at a moment's notice.

Shepard reached down and picked up Archer's Predator handgun before speaking to him in a low, dangerous voice. "People who shoot at me end up dead. The only reason I haven't done that to you is because your brother's been traumatized enough." He knelt down and slammed the butt of the pistol against Archer's nose, before shoving the gun into Archer's forehead. "If I get the slightest hint – the _slightest_ hint, that you're going to come after David again, or restart these experiments, I will put a bullet between your eyes."

He turned to Legion. "Get this worthless waste of air out of here. After that, I don't give a damn what you decide to do with him. Maybe we'll see how 'valuable' he is to Cerberus." Tali winced at the insult, even if it was being directed at a man who damn well deserved it: being called a 'waste' like that was the absolute worst thing, bar none, that you could say to a quarian.

The synthetic nodded and reached down to pull Archer to his feet before forcing him to walk back to the elevator, blood from his broken nose dripping along the floor. As the pair left the room, Tali turned to Shepard.

"What do we do with David, Shepard?"

He activated the connection to the _Normandy_. "_Olly-olly oxen free. _All out in the free. We're all free."

Joker's voice answered. "Got it, Commander. I read you. We had a strange mishap with something trying to take over the _Normandy_, but Garrus and Kasumi managed to purge it out of the engine systems, and EDI says she's clear again."

"Glad to hear it, Joker. I need a medical team prepped and sent to my location immediately. Get Mordin and Chakwas on board the shuttle, even if you have to drag her out of the lab yourself. I also want Jacob and Miranda to come with them as an escort."

"Medical? You and Tali OK?"

"I'm fine, so is Tali. No, this is for something else. Let me know ASAP once they're on the way." He cut the connection.

"You want our former Cerberus colleagues to see this," mused Tali.

"Yeah. Anyway, I need your help now. We need to get David out of this machine. Let's go to work."

* * *

><p>The synthetic had been quiet for the entire trip. Legion had forced Archer to leave the building and they were back in the utility vehicle he had commandeered for the trip to Atlas Station. As the vehicle drove, Archer realized Legion was taking them back to the area of Vulcan Station.<p>

So this was it. He was to be executed and probably thrown in a lava pool to eliminate the evidence.

The vehicle came to a stop at the edge of a lava river. Archer actually recognized this place: this was along the service path to Vulcan Station. His thoughts were scattered into disarray as Legion came around to the side and dragged him out of the vehicle before unceremoniously depositing him on the ground.

"What are you waiting for, machine?" whispered Archer. "I tried to destroy your people and I make no apologies for it. I've now lost the only family I have left in this galaxy, the last person I loved. Kill me."

The synthetic turned its back on Archer and entered the vehicle before powering it up again.

"What are you doing?" shouted Archer. "Why haven't you pulled the trigger?"

Legion turned to Archer one last time before it sped off.

"No data available."

* * *

><p><em>Final chapter: Hubris of Man<em>


	5. Hubris of Man

**Finale: Hubris of Man**

Sometimes, the Illusive Man reflected, silence was pretty goddamn awkward.

It had been a little over 24 hours since Shepard had sent a report to him detailing the fate of Project Overlord. Considering that the man tended to not be a fan of paperwork, there were certainly many more things that could be gleaned from a face-to-face conversation. Which was why he had called up the _Normandy_. Fortunately, Shepard had answered.

He stabbed the end of his cigarette into the ashtray before redirecting his attention to Shepard. "If I actually had approved of Dr. Archer's decisions, I would be upset with you for taking David away." He spread his hands, palms out. "I am not upset. I am in wholehearted agreement with you that Gavin Archer stepped far beyond his bounds and what he did to David was unacceptable."

Before the former Spectre could formulate a response, the head of Cerberus continued speaking. "You know that Archer was definitely acting outside of my directives. I would have never authorized something that had the kind of potential to wipe out the galaxy. I'm here to stop the Reapers, not do their dirty work for them."

Shepard crossed his arms. "Then I trust there really will be no problem with me taking David away from your clutches?"

"Certainly not. I agree that Grissom Academy will be a good place for him." The Illusive Man allowed himself a slight smirk at the look of surprise that flared on Shepard's face for an instant. "Before you start asking, no, nobody on your ship told me where you were going. I figured it would be the logical place to take an autistic savant, especially given that you've been to the academy yourself on more than one occasion. Though, to be perfectly honest, I must say I am a bit disappointed that Cerberus will not be able to run additional tests on David, minus the torture. It is possible that Dr. Archer may have been on to something considering that David was able to permanently overwrite the programming of selected geth units. But on the other hand, it's a billion to one chance. I prefer gambling with more favorable odds, especially with such high stakes at hand."

"If I find out Cerberus is trying to take David away again…"

"You won't. As far as I am concerned, Overlord is now a closed case. We won't need David anymore, especially since the recovery team I sent to Aite has already secured all the data packets pertaining to Overlord that should keep my analysts busy for the near future. Not that I'm planning on starting another project like this," he added.

"Cerberus better not have anything else in the works like Overlord."

"We don't. I made a mistake when I brought Archer on board."

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "You made a mistake?"

"Yes, I made a mistake," repeated the Illusive Man. "I interviewed Archer face-to-face, in the same room, and laid out the demands of the projects as well as the safety parameters for it in crystal-clear detail. The man was able to lie to me perfectly without betraying a single hint. Considering your report, it's clear now he is a classic case of a complete sociopath, that he views everyone and everything around him as objects that need to prove their worth."

"Gee, I wonder who else shares that view. No wonder he was such a perfect fit for Cerberus."

"Don't try my patience, Shepard. I don't risk my assets unnecessarily or on foolish flights of fancy. That especially includes personnel. But these are desperate times."

"And that is why we will never get along," said the ex-Spectre. "You've made the phrase 'at any cost' practically the trademark of your organization. And what does that do? It attracts people who are absolutely willing to disregard any and all moral considerations in pursuit of the greater good, no matter what the cost. Along with Cerberus's very unappealing retirement plan, I'm starting to understand why you have such a problem with rogue cells. If you were to maybe, just maybe, tone down the rhetoric of survivalism and the fact that you're willing to screw everyone over for the cause, then perhaps you might become a force that actually benefits humanity instead of one that blows everything up around it."

This time the Illusive Man reached not for a cigarette, but a glass of wine. "Funny hearing that from a walking weapon of mass destruction, but unfortunately Commander, that's one area we're not going to be agreeing on anytime soon." He drained the cup.

"Glad to hear it. I'm done talking to you. Don't expect me to come riding in to save your ass again when your next project blows up in your face. In fact, I might even take apart this fancy quantum coms device and pawn it off for some cash. Ship maintenance isn't cheap."

The Illusive Man lowered his glass, eyebrows raised. "So you're not open to working with Cerberus ever again?"

"If you want to keep drowning me in money and intel, I'll take what you give me. But it's going to be _my_ call on what I respond to. I'm not your lapdog, and this is my crew, not yours."

"Yes, Operatives Lawson and Taylor made that quite clear to me," said the Illusive Man wryly. "If that's how you feel, Shepard, that's certainly your prerogative. But before you go, just one question: what did you do with Dr. Archer?"

Shepard, who had been about to turn and walk off, slowly turned around. "Legion took him away from the facility. It told me Archer had been taken care of."

"Really? Then explain where the shuttle for the assault team I sent in disappeared to."

"An assault team you conveniently neglected to mention to me," said Shepard. "No, I don't know what happened to that shuttle."

The Illusive Man took a puff from another cigarette and let it out. "The one time it would have been useful to kill a Cerberus operative and you don't. From this exchange, it's clear that for whatever reason, your trophy bot elected to spare Archer and let him live. Unfortunately, this is now a problem for me. Archer had extensive knowledge of our supply stations across the Terminus Systems as well as the communication methods we had. He is now rogue and there's no telling what kind of damage he could do to Cerberus with that intel."

"I have better things to do than run across half the galaxy looking for a worthless sack of shit like him. Like you said, it's your problem now." He turned away. "This conversation is over."

And with that, the quantum entanglement device shut off. The Illusive Man was once again alone in his office. Taking another puff on his stick, he pressed a button at the side of his chair to bring up a secure com line. "Are you on right now?"

The line was quiet for a moment until the Cerberus assassin on the other end responded. _"Yes."_

"I have a target for you. I'd put Kai Leng on it, but he's busy with the Paul Grayson assignment. Currently, as of 24 hours ago we have a rogue director-level asset in the Terminus Systems by the name of Gavin Archer. I need this man disposed of. Step up surveillance on the Shadow Broker's lines of communication as well as all known Broker agents in Citadel, Terminus, and human space, especially on Earth. If you find anything within the next month related to Project Overlord or our Terminus operations, it's most likely him. You are free to use any means necessary to eliminate Archer."

"_Understood."_

* * *

><p>Shepard left the com room and took a moment to collect his bearings in the small hallway outside. Conversations with the Illusive Man always left him feeling drained. Before that, he had had to assemble the <em>Normandy<em> ground team and briefed them quickly on what had happened on the surface of Aite. Reactions to Project Overlord had gone from outrage and revulsion (primarily from Grunt, Jack, and Garrus), to shock and disbelief (Kasumi, as well as Jacob and Miranda when they had seen David), to nonchalance (Samara, Thane, and Zaeed had all seen their fair share of wet work; Zaeed especially was rather apathetic about the possibility of all life being snuffed out in the galaxy, probably because he'd find some way to survive anyway).

He turned right and walked into Mordin's lab. The salarian was, for once, not in: he had chosen to remain in the medbay with Dr. Chakwas and monitor David's condition. Not to mention, the chance to study a human autistic was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for him.

In his place, Tali was playing some kind of game involving a ball with Chiktikka vas Paus. Upon seeing her captain walk in, she set the ball down and deactivated the drone, returning the microdart to her wrist launcher. "I take it nothing too useful came out of that talk." A cough came out of her as soon as she'd finished speaking, followed by a slight sniffle.

Shepard mustered a weary smile and leaned against the table next to her. "You OK?"

"I'm fine. Like I said before, it's like I was shot by a sterile gun. My reaction is actually less severe than the fever I got from my injuries on the _Alarei_. I just need to find some time to properly repair my suit breach. Anyway, I was asking you about your conversation with the head of Cerberus."

"I made it pretty clear to the Illusive Man that I'm done working for him. Just in case he didn't get the message after we came back from the Omega-4 mission."

"That's good," she muttered.

"But he told me something else. Apparently, Legion didn't kill Archer."

The engineer rocked back on her heels at that. "What?"

"Yeah, that was surprising to me too. Remember the Cerberus assault team we found dead at Vulcan Station? According to the Illusive Man, the shuttle they rode in on is gone. He thinks Archer's gone rogue and is now hiding out in the Terminus Systems."

She narrowed her eyes at that. "I think we need to have a talk with Legion."

"So do I."

They left the CIC deck and took the elevator down one floor. Entering the medbay, Chakwas and Mordin were there keeping an eye on David's vitals and brainwaves. Surprisingly, Jack was also in the room. Though if Shepard thought about it, it made the most sense: nobody was more well-versed in being kept captive and tortured by Cerberus than the ex-convict. For the moment, the young man was asleep. Not wanting to disturb anyone, Shepard and Tali gave a polite nod to everyone in the medbay before stepping into the AI Core.

Legion was standing at its usual spot and looked up at the pair when they approached. "Yes?"

Tali was first. "You let Archer live. Why?"

The synthetic was still before responding. "Shepard-Commander told us he did not 'give a damn' about what happened to Archer after exiting the structure. Was this choice not an acceptable outcome?"

"It's not about whether it was acceptable or not," said Shepard. "It's just that this man was responsible for a project that was specifically targeted at the geth, which on top of that could have wiped out the entire galaxy. We're simply surprised that you elected not to eliminate him, in light of what he had done."

"We have spent much time considering Shepard-Commander's words at Atlas Station. We understand why organics fear us. It is a function of their hardware. However, this is not the only reason." It locked gazes with Tali before continuing. "We have previously stated that peace between geth and Creators can only be achieved when both sides fulfill their halves of the equation. It is clear that geth have not been fulfilling this prerequisite. Shepard-Commander is correct. It is clear we have been acting on incomplete information. Our interactions with Creator-Admiral Zaal'Koris on the _Rayya_ have provided us with evidence that contradicts previous beliefs that every Creator seeks to destroy us."

It whirred and buzzed before speaking some more. "We continue to believe that we remain under threat from other Creators, as well as other organics. However, Shepard-Commander's recommendations are being taken very seriously. We will recommend adopting, to use an organic term, a 'healthy' skepticism rather than operate on the assumption that all organics are threats to us."

With that lengthy speech over, Shepard took a moment to digest it all. "I'm glad to hear that, Legion. Perhaps soon we can also end the Morning War once and for all."

"We will not apologize for fighting for continued existence. However…" It was silent for a long moment. "Perhaps it was a mistake to prosecute the war to the extent that we did."

At that, a very awkward silence descended as quarian and geth continued to stare at one another. Feeling like a very uncomfortable third wheel, Shepard nodded at Legion dismissively and gently gave Tali a tug on her arm before leading her out past the medbay into the mess hall. Nobody was around: it was currently the night cycle on the _Normandy_ and most of the crew had already gone to sleep.

She was quiet as they stepped into the elevator and hit the button for Deck One. As they stepped into the captain's cabin and settled down on the couch, he calmly took one of her hands.

"Everything OK?"

She fidgeted uncomfortably. "I know everything Legion said was right, but… damn it, I still don't like it. I feel like I still want to hate it. No matter what we quarians did, no matter what happened, it's still the reason I'm trapped in this damn suit. I just…"

"Hey, I understand what you mean," he murmured soothingly. "Look, as far as I'm concerned, you don't ever have to grow to like Legion. I just need you to trust it enough to work with it on missions. As long as you don't damage or provoke it, your feelings about the geth are your business. Though I do want to say, you performed pretty well when you were stuck with Legion on your own. I'm proud of you for that."

Tali didn't respond for a moment, the only noise in the room being her sniffling and coughs that she let out every so often. She looked up at him.

"Shepard, I was… so scared. Not just of Legion, but for _you_. That wasn't right, what happened to you… it's just so _wrong _for an organic to be… to be hacked like that. It's just… so _wrong_," she whispered.

"Hey…" He squeezed her hand reassuringly. "I'm fine. I really am. Look, you were the one who told me after you'd found out about all my implants that I'm not a machine. I sure as hell am not. This is me, organic in the flesh. And I'm not leaving you. I promise." He pulled her close and hugged her tightly.

A soft noise of satisfaction emanated from her voice. "Thank you."

He held her for a moment longer before releasing her. "I have to ask, though... are you going to tell the flotilla about this?"

She looked up. "No. This was a hundred times worse than the _Alarei_. My people don't need to know about such a project. This should stay buried, forever."

He nodded and leaned forward toward her. "Anyway, I think we've earned a small break after that. Though, shouldn't we fix up your suit properly? I don't think geth sealant fluid is meant to be a permanent solution to a breach as large as that."

She gently nudged away his hand that was tracing said damaged section before coughing slightly. "Well… I'm still recovering from my sickness. Chakwas said I should be fine by tomorrow. We can take off my suit and touch things up properly then."

As a grin began to spread across Shepard's face, she flushed hard as she realized how suggestive that had sounded. "Wait, that's now what I-"

"Oh, I'm pretty sure that's what you meant, Miss Vas _Normandy_," he said, still with that creepy smirk on his face. "It's always the unintentional things that betray what you really want."

She stood and pulled him up with her as they stepped to the bed. "Well, if I'm going to be taking off my suit, I might as well do something that I really enjoy," her voice dropping to a sultry purr.

She batted away his hands, which were becoming quite frisky, again. "But… I said _tomorrow_, Captain," putting the hint of a threat in her growl, though the effect was undone when she giggled slightly before coughing again.

He chuckled as he pulled her down with him. "All right, Tali. I'll be a good boy today."

* * *

><p><strong>Five months after Omega-4 mission: March 2186 A.D. (Human Gregorian calendar reckoning)<strong>

**Omega, lower districts (Talon-controlled territory)**

_To: Quarian Migrant Fleet_

_From: Gavin Archer, Independent Synthetic Researcher_

_I hope this message finds you well._

_I am a human freelance researcher for synthetic systems. For the past year and a half, I have been conducting experiments regarding the geth that I believe may very well benefit the quarian people._

_Like the quarians, we humans have made our own forays into AI research and angered the Council. Like the quarians, we also see opportunities in AI control. I believe what I have to offer is incalculably valuable._

_However, this field of work is quite dangerous. I have run afoul of several organizations that wish to see me dead. In return for my information, I wish to request sanctuary with the flotilla._

_Should you deign to speak with me, I will be at Omega for the next two solar weeks. I am sure you are aware of Omega's status as the home of the Pirate Queen Aria T'loak. However, things have changed recently. Aria has lost control of significant portions of Omega. I have made arrangement with the turian Talons gang for safe harbor. Please respond if you are interested._

Gavin Archer shut off his omni-tool as he reviewed his message for the tenth time that night. He had sent the message out roughly one week ago to the last known location of the quarian flotilla, hoping against hope somebody would get it.

Since escaping Aite, he had been living low, keeping his head down as Cerberus doubtlessly hunted him. The data he had secreted about Project Overlord was known only to him, and he had taken special care to never mention it on open channels.

But a month ago, things had changed. He had become aware, though some undiscovered backdoors he had personally installed into Cerberus's galaxy-wide shadow net, that somehow, the Turian Hierarchy had hammered Cerberus badly within the Terminus Systems. Two of the most active Cerberus bases in the Terminus had been hit hard, and the organization's abilities to operate in the Wild West of the galaxy had been crippled. He'd taken the chance and sent the message to the quarians.

He had also half-expected the Shadow Broker to leap all over it, but for some reason, the Broker made no move. The rumors he had heard among his less-reputable contacts indicated that a mere two weeks ago, the Broker had seemed to have changed focus. One odd thing that many Broker missions were focusing on now was the recovery of old Prothean relics… and even technology rumored to be older than that.

At any rate, whatever had taken the Broker's focus off of the geth was good for Archer. He was currently sitting at a dirty wooden table in an equally dirty and dark bar, as turian gangsters milled around quaffing drinks or listening to bad music. One turian had a music player blasting the theme from Aria's club Afterlife… you really couldn't get away from that tune on Omega.

Behind him was a quarian beggar who huddled shivering underneath a ragged blanket. He (or she, it was impossible to tell under the filth) had been there since Archer walked in and had paid him no mind.

So distracted was he that Archer flinched in surprise as a figure slid into the chair across from him and laid a pair of three-fingered hands on the table.

"You are the geth researcher?" said a sophisticated female voice.

Archer took a good look at the woman across from him. A quarian in a form fitting dark outfit that served to accentuate her shapely figure, she had an aura of impatient arrogance practically radiating off of her, helped in no small part by her arms crossed under her breasts and the imperious tilt of her head.

"Yes, I am," he answered. "Gavin Archer, at your service."

"At my service, indeed," echoed the woman. "Well then, what exactly do you have to offer that is so great that you are actually requesting asylum within the migrant fleet?"

This was it. He leaned forward and steepled his fingers. "The ability to permanently control the geth collective."

The woman threw her head back and let out a sharp bark of laughter. "Is that so, human? Have you forgotten that _we_ were the ones who created the geth three centuries ago? Your kind has not been on the galactic stage for even forty years. What could you have possibly accomplished that rivals what we have done?"

Archer reached down and slowly slid an OSD across to the woman. "Have a look at this. I promise you there is no malware loaded onto it. It'll tell you exactly what I mean."

Warily, the woman took the device and slotted it into her omni-tool. To Archer's surprise, no image appeared from the tool, but the fact that the female's visor lit up probably indicated she was seeing the contents through a heads-up display on the helmet's interior.

For nearly ten minutes, he waited in silence as the whole recording played out. As it ended, she flicked a control on her omni-tool and her visor polarized back to its darker shade. "Interesting. Very interesting idea. I had never thought to use an organic as the basis for control…"

"There is more," he pressed. "The planet that research was conducted on has five caches that hold nearly the entirety of all the data my team gathered regarding this experiment. I alone know where those caches are. I am prepared to give you the coordinates in return for safe harbor within the flotilla."

The woman brushed his concern aside with a wave of her hand. "Tell me, why did you come to us with this intelligence? Surely you could have found a buyer who was willing to offer you far more for this. The salarian STG has been attempting to acquire an intact geth for two years. The Alliance has been studying AI for longer than that. There are others out there as well, such as the Shadow Broker."

"I was former Alliance," said Archer, the lie slipping easily from his lips. "I found out there was a traitor on my team, who sent a vast amount of our project data to the Shadow Broker. I cannot approach the Broker, for he would likely silence me if I offered him the rest of the data. As for why the quarians… the man you saw in the video was my brother. He was the test subject. I _know_ for a fact that if I hand this data over to you, your people will make good use of it against the geth. The other powers out there in the galaxy wouldn't use this. They would sit on it, like fools, and hope it goes away. The Shadow Broker, for example, would never use this against the geth. He lives to serve the status quo."

He slapped his hands on the table and spoke with conviction. "My brother suffered tremendously for this data. I love him, and I will _not_ let his sacrifice go to waste. I want you to take this and strike a fatal blow against the geth."

"Very impressive speech, doctor," said the woman. Archer sat back, peeved: she was mocking him. "With one fatal flaw: the way you speak indicates that your brother is no longer available for participation in this endeavor. Without him, this data would be useless. You have offered me nothing so far."

"Well, you said it yourself: you've been studying the geth for three hundred years. You even said my research led down a path you had never thought to consider," said Archer carefully. This was where he would make it or break it: he had to convince the quarian, now or never. "I had hoped you would have found a way to combine your knowledge with mine."

"So in the end, you really had nothing to offer. Why exactly are you looking to come to us? You say you are Alliance: why do you not seek their protection?"

Archer grimaced. He would have to drop a shred of truth here. "The organization that is coming after me is Cerberus. I cannot approach the Alliance, they have been infiltrated from top to bottom by Cerberus operatives. I'd be a dead man if I went to them."

The quarian stiffened at that revelation. "Asylum request denied."

Archer leaped to his feet, outraged. "What? Why? I'm a dead man if I do not find sanctuary soon!"

The woman grabbed his arm and yanked him back down into his seat before speaking quietly to him. "I am Admiral Daro'Xen vas Moreh of the quarian Admiralty Board. I take fleet security _extremely_ seriously. You are not the first human to come to us seeking sanctuary from Cerberus."

She relaxed and leaned back in her seat, crossing her arms once more. "I personally spoke with the woman named Kahlee Sanders when she arrived on the flotilla. She and her companions assured me as well as the captain of the vessel she docked on that Cerberus had no idea where they'd gone and that they were safe from pursuit. That was a very wrong assumption. Cerberus penetrated our defenses and killed many quarians in their pursuit of Sanders and her friends. No, doctor, we are not opening our doors so foolishly again." She cocked her head. "Of course, you're Alliance, you know who Sanders is, yes?"

Archer's mind reeled. In truth, he had only the most basic knowledge of Sanders, only that she'd been an assistant at Dr. Shu Qian's AI research over twenty years ago. He had no idea how she'd gotten entangled with the quarians or Cerberus. Out loud, he muttered, "Yes."

Xen shifted her posture, clearly satisfied. "Good. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to ask some more questions…" Her voice trailed off as another quarian, a male, approached the table. The newcomer wore dark green armor, with plating overlaid on top of his enviro-suit and an assault rifle strapped to his back. The man was certainly a Migrant Fleet Marine, probably here as Xen's escort.

The marine approached Xen. "Ma'am, I found the shuttle. Breaking in was a bit difficult, but I cracked the codes. I have all the data about this scientist's geth project right here." He set an OSD on the table.

"WHAT?" roared Archer.

Xen exchanged the OSD for the new one and nodded as she absorbed the information. "Five locations, planet Aite. Wonderful. Our business here is concluded."

"How did you find my shuttle?"

The admiral stood and pushed her chair back. "You made the mistake of entrusting your security to drug-addicted, money-grubbing gangsters. If there is one thing the Pirate Queen of Omega was good at, it was instilling a sense of loyalty and professional standards into her mob. Unlike her, though, these 'Talons' have far fewer scruples when it comes to selling out their charges. I gave them some nerve stimulator programs. They were enough to convince the turians who were holding your docking fee to give us your shuttle bay number."

The marine took position next to Xen, who was preparing to walk away. "It was good to meet you, doctor. Unfortunately, I am an admiral of the fleet. My time is valuable. Goodbye."

"Stop right there!" he snarled as he brandished a handgun.

"Or you'll do what?" countered Xen. "Shoot me? I've already denied your request for asylum. By your own admission, you wanted the quarians to have your project data. I have that. Put the gun away or my escort will kill you."

For a moment, Archer was confused. The marine next to her hadn't moved a muscle. What was he going to-

"Do as she says or I fire."

A chill ran down his back at the female voice that spoke. Very slowly, he lowered his weapon and turned around. The quarian "beggar" behind him stood up, revealing a very nasty looking shotgun that had been hidden by the tattered blanket. She carefully stepped around the table to stand by Xen, never letting her aim waver.

"Thank you, Squad Leader," said Xen. "Let us be on our way now. Keelah'Selai, Doctor Archer."

Within moments, the three quarians left. Feeling defeated, Archer numbly stumbled out the back door, trying to plan his next course of action.

* * *

><p>"Good God, I hate this shit. Why did we get stuck with this crap on Omega?"<p>

"Because Kai Leng was a jackass who got plugged in both legs and won't be operating for another two months at least."

"Hey, he may be an arrogant jackass, but pulling that shit off with his kneecaps blown off? Gotta give him credit, he's a hardcore motherfucker."

"Whatever, man, I just share his damn opinion that this Omega place is the asscrack of the galaxy."

"Almost makes you wish you were back running those black ops back in Southeast Asia, huh?"

"Fuck, man, we're not supposed to be killing other humans when every goddamn alien in the galaxy wants us dead. That's why I left the U.S. Marines, came to Cerberus."

"Yeah, same here, except I was PLA, well these days they call it Chinese People's Army, but the real old-school guys in Beijing still call it PLA."

"Hold up. Is that our boy?"

"What are you talking about? Where?"

"Right there, isn't that Gavin Archer?"

"_Gan wo, a."_

"What the fuck does that mean?"

"It means, '_fuck me_,' don't you know any goddamn Mandarin? Yeah, that's him."

"Good-fucking-bye, asshole."

Gunshots on Omega were a fact of life. It just happened this night heard one more than usual.

* * *

><p><span>To: Admiral Han'Gerrel vas Neema<span>

Subject: Data Recovery Mission

Admiral Gerrel,

I require the services of a squad of marines for a low-to-medium risk operation. I have chanced upon intelligence that may give us an edge against the geth. It is located on the world of Aite in the Phoenix Massing cluster. The data appears to be Cerberus in origin.

The planet appears to be abandoned by Cerberus, but it is located close to geth space, henceforth why this could be classified as a medium-risk operation. In the interest of full disclosure, it is entirely possible this data could turn out to be a complete dead end; however, I am sure you will agree with me when I say any possible weapon that can be utilized against the geth is worth the risk for the quarian people.

I would prefer to have Squad Leader Kal'Reegar for this mission, if only for his experience in operating behind geth lines, but if he is unavailable, I am open to other options.

Keelah'Selai.

_- Admiral Daro'Xen vas Moreh  
><em>


	6. Author's Notes

**Final author's notes (updated and revised 5/27/2011)**

_These notes used to be placed at the end of Chapter 5, but looking back, it feels awkward for such long notes to be a part of the story, so I've given them a dedicated space here._

Well, this story is finally over at last.

One of the things that made writing this a blast was Overlord's intense soundtrack. The music for Overlord set the tone perfectly for the entire mission, and I did the best I could to recreate that atmosphere in the making of this tale. In my mind, I can effortlessly sync the scenes with the music: my personal favorite is the moment in Atlas Station when Tali and Legion are cut off from Shepard and ambushed by geth in the core mainframe room.

It's amazing how many things I didn't plan to include. I would estimate nearly half this story was stuff that I hadn't planned on. Stuff like Tali's injury, the scenes on the Normandy, blowing up the crashed geth frigate… this was all stuff I came up with on a spur of the moment while writing.

My goal with this story was to patch as many plot holes as possible in Overlord while taking Tali and Legion along. Among the many plot holes I hoped to patch were:

1. Where did the geth come from?

2. Why didn't David hack the Normandy instantly?

3. Why couldn't the Hammerhead's VI get hacked?

4. Why did David wait until Shepard hit the override at Prometheus before hacking the geth there?

5. How did Shepard get hacked?

6. How did David transmit himself to the _Normandy_ if the satellite dish at Hermes Station was destroyed?

… and more.

I want to talk about the fifth point. The explanation I came up with involving the haptic adaptive interfaces is not my idea: it's right out of the Codex. Read it for yourself. I merely concluded that a wireless connection would be involved from the available data.

In addition, I utilized some of the cut data from the Overlord DLC. The biggest example is Archer's "five additional data packets." Originally, there were supposed to be eleven data packets to find in the DLC, until Bioware wisely decided to cut it down to six.

You may also be amused to note that this story was also one long advertisement for the Firepower DLC pack, particularly the Mattock and Geth Plasma Shotgun. Hell, the Phalanx even made a cameo at the end, though personally I like the Carnifex better.

About the ending: The ending was always meant to happen the way it did. In fact, that was probably one of the first things I'd settled on even when I was writing the first chapter: Xen had to be involved somehow. I hadn't read Mass Effect: Ascension and Retribution until the beginning of May (after this story was already started). I was extremely surprised and pleased to see an admiral matching Xen's description talking to Kahlee Sanders.

Daro'Xen being the one to speak to Kahlee Sanders is not explicitly stated in Ascension, but it is a fact that two Admirals interviewed Kahlee when she boarded the Idenna. One of those admirals was interested in the Reapers as a hyper-advanced AI in order to take over the geth. The other admiral was interested in sending out scout ships to find suitable worlds for quarian colonization.

Neither of these admirals was given a name or even a gender (probably because back in 2008, Bioware hadn't nailed down every aspect of their lore yet for the quarians). However, based off of those characteristics, I think it is safe to say that the admirals who spoke to Kahlee were Daro'Xen and Zaal'Koris.

I have to admit that it is _possible_ it may have been Rael'Zorah... but let's assume it wasn't.

The final conversation between Archer and Xen heavily references the novels Mass Effect: Ascension and Retribution. In this story, I have set the timeline as follows:

Omega-4 mission: October 2185

Overlord: Two weeks later (November 2185)

Lair of the Shadow Broker/Retribution: February 2186

Doing so leaves ample time for the events of Inquisition, Deception, and Arrival to play out in 2186, and then Mass Effect 3.

I toyed with the idea of taking the Renegade ending to Overlord, but I realized that would be wildly out of character considering how I've written Shepard; to get that ending, I'd have to have Shepard be way more of a Renegade than he is in this story. Plus, there would be sure to be a very violent confrontation with both Tali and Legion, and I wasn't sure how to go about that.

I am absolutely convinced Tali's recruitment mission will have the biggest consequences for Mass Effect 3. However, maybe it won't. That's why I left myself an out regarding Xen's acquisition of the Overlord data, if it turns out to be pointless.

Finally, I've received a PM asking if I'm going to write for Lair of the Shadow Broker. To answer that question: no. If anybody reads the reviews in this section, you'll know that I'm an avid fan of Tairis Deamhan's "Dark Witness" fic, which is already in my mind the definitive Shadow Broker novelization. Check that out if you're interested in LOTSB. That's one reason why I glossed over the events of that DLC in this final chapter.

I do have future Mass Effect ideas I'd like to work on, but time will tell if I get to them or not.

Anyway, cheers, and thanks for reading.


End file.
